Hamaas

HaMaas was a weekly publication of the Lehi, an armed Zionist militant group and self-described terrorist organization in Mandatory Palestine. Other publications by the Lehi included the daily Mivrak, the monthly HaKhazit, and BaMahteret.

History

The publication first came to public attention in July 1946 after the report of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry and a British Colonial Office White Paper identified an article in the second issue indicating that a Lehi attack on the Haifa [Oil Refinery] on the night of 31 October/1 November 1945 had been coordinated with other attacks on the same night by the Haganah, the Irgun and the Palmach under the overall direction of the Jewish Agency. Hamaas noted,
In addition to the Hamaas article the British government published intercepted telegrams between the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem and Zionist leaders in London that demonstrated Jewish Agency control over the formal organisation established by the Haganah, Irgun and Lehi to coordinate their actions, which was known as the Tenuat Hameri.
During the operations mentioned by Hamaas, the Haganah planted 500 explosive devices causing 242 breaks in the railway lines, and damaged the stationmaster's office in Jerusalem, a telephone installation on the Jerusalem-Lydda line, and a petrol wagon in the Tel Aviv railway yard. The Irgun attack at Lydda destroyed one locomotive and damaged six others. In the Lehi attack on Consolidated Refineries in Haifa, one Lehi operative, Moishele Bar Giora, was killed in a premature explosion and another, Abraham Yehudai, was badly wounded.
The operations were publicised by the illegal Haganah underground radio station Kol Yisrael. The Mandate authorities and the British government in London were outraged by the intensity of the violence and mobilised additional military forces.