Following the war , he saw action against Jewish guerrillas during the Palestine Emergency . While in Palestine , he participated in operations to arrest Jewish militants . During Operation Agatha , which saw most of the Jewish political leadership in Palestine detained , Mitchell 's mission was to arrest Moshe Shertok ( a future Prime Minister of Israel ) . Initially , his unit raided the wrong house . However , they were later able to find and arrest him . In July 1946 , he witnessed the King David Hotel bombing : he and his company commander were within 300 feet of the building when the bombing occurred . While on a personal reconnaissance mission , he was shot and wounded by one of his own Bren gunners , who mistook him for a guerrilla . After recovering from his injuries , he was transferred from his regiment to become aide-de-camp to General Gordon MacMillan , the commander of British forces in Palestine and Transjordan . He spent a total of three years in Palestine . While there , he made friends among both the Arabs and Jews , including Moshe Dayan , a future Israeli general who would become one of Mitchell 's heroes , as well as Moshe Shertok , who developed a cordial relationship with Mitchell after his arrest and corresponded with him for years afterward , when he became a senior Israeli government official
King David Hotel bombing
King David Hotel bombing
Colin Mitchell