On The "Ra'anana Five" - A Historical Note

On November 11, 1947, British Mandate police and army personnel surrounded a house located in an isolated section of Ra'anana. The hosue was being used as a training camp for members of Lechi, the Fighters for the Freedom of Israel.

Without any calls for surrender, fire was opened by the British and 5 teenaged boys and girls were killed. Another five survived.

From a Lechi announcement:

The Recruits: Ora, Hemda, Ruth, Ariel [and] Fighter-Instructor, Igal

Overwhelmingly outnumbered, they fell in the fields of the Sharon during a surprise attack. Young recruits, they were learning how to join the fight in their people's struggle for survival.

Their innocent blood commands us

DEATH TO THE ENEMY - FREEDOM FOR THE HOMELAND

"The sons tearing up the flesh of their mother are an obscenity and their sacrilege can never be expiated."
"And the sinning sons of Eli the High Priest, Hofni and Pinchas, are there as well, the pronged forks of their lust held ready, eager for the choice bits of the sacrifice."

In the following days, Lechi killed 7 British security persons and wounded more than 35. The collaborators who revealed the location, of the Shuvki family, Arabs, also were attacked and paid for their act.

The victims names were:

Yitzhak Moskowitz
Leah Gintzler
Yehudit Cohen
Shalom Maharovsky
Sarah Belsky

^