Following Operation Shark , the Mandate was relatively quiet until September , though in August the Palmach sabotaged the British transport ships '' Empire Rival '' and '' Empire Heywood '' , which was used to deport illegal Jewish immigrants to the Cyprus internment camps . In September , attacks picked up again , starting with two assassinations carried out by Lehi on September 9 : British Army intelligence officer Desmond Doran was killed in a grenade attack on his home , and police sergeant T.G. Martin , who had been responsible for Yitzhak Shamir 's arrest , was shot dead at a tennis court . In the early morning hours of September 10 , a British soldier was killed when Jewish insurgents ambushed army vehicles with automatic fire near Petah Tikva . On September 20 , a railway station in Haifa was bombed and a British soldier was shot dead in Tel Aviv two days later . On September 31 , a British soldier was killed by automatic fire in an ambush while en route from Lydda to Netanya by motorcycle . In October , Jewish insurgents began using vehicle mines against British vehicles . Eight British soldiers were killed in mine attacks throughout October . Another two were killed and five injured by bombs hidden inside dustbins and a shop shutter detonated as they passed . In addition , a shooting attack against two British airmen in Jerusalem killed one and seriously wounded the other one , and British police officer William Bruce was shot dead in an assassination by the Palmach as vengeance over allegations that he had tortured Palmach prisoners . On October 30 , the Irgun raided the Jerusalem railway station . The British had advance knowledge of the plan and a police team opened fire on the raiders , wounding four of them and forcing them to retreat after depositing the explosives . Four of the attackers were later captured including two of the wounded ones . One of them was Meir Feinstein , who was tried and sentenced to death for his role in the action . The interior of station was subsequently badly damaged and a British constable killed when the bombs the raiding party left behind exploded during an attempt to remove them . The following day , Irgun operatives in Italy bombed the British Embassy in Rome , which seriously damaged the building . The Italian authorities subsequently arrested Irgun suspects and discovered an Irgun sabotage school in Rome . One of the Irgun members arrested was Israel Epstein , a childhood friend of Irgun commander Menachem Begin who worked in propaganda and liaison duties for the Irgun high command . He was shot dead while trying to escape custody
bombed the British Embassy
1946 British Embassy bombing
Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine