Kidnapping
Several weeks earlier, Irgun learned about a Jewish refugee from Vienna by the name of Aaron Weinberg, who worked as a clerk in a British military resort camp in north Netanya. This information was already known to the local SHAI (the intelligence arm of the Haganah) commander, Yehoshua Bar-Ziv, who entrusted him with striking up a relationship with two British sergeants, Clifford Martin and Marvin Paice, who used to spend a lot of time in the camp.
The sergeants were of interest to SHAI since they belonged to the field security unit and worked with the Tulkarm police, which was in charge of the Sharon district. Weinberg was very successful in his task, and occasionally got the sergeants to go out to the Netanya beach, in plain clothes. During the tense days of the summer of 1947 such excursions were very risky, and were probably unknown to their commanders.
On one of those visits, on the night of Saturday, July 4, they were noted by an Irgun member sitting in the Gan Vered café who heard them speaking English and who followed them back to the camp. Based on his information, a week later Irgun made arrangements to kidnap them in the hope that they would return to the café.
On July 11, 1947, the Irgun group retrieved weapons, chloroform, cloths and ropes from a hidden cache. After the recent failures, the Irgun militants in Netanya were skeptical regarding the chances of this kidnapping attempt. Because of this they did not go to any great lengths to cover their tracks, considering the complicated crime they were planning: they did not steal or borrow a vehicle or bring in non-local members who were less likely to be recognized. Furthermore, Yosef Meller, a longtime Netanya resident and newly recruited Irgun militant, volunteered to use his black taxi cab, which was well known around town, for the kidnapping. At nightfall one basic precaution was taken; the taxi's license plates were changed in an attempt to prevent it being recognized in the course of the crime.
That evening Weinberg and the intended victims showed up once more at the café. Martin and Paice were in civilian clothes, were unarmed, were outside their camp at a forbidden time and were not part of a group of four, as required by standing orders at the time. After being informed that his intended victims were there, Kaplan posted his men around the coffee shop and along the road leading north to the camp and waited for an opportunity to perform the abduction. Weinberg and the two sergeants did not leave the coffee shop until after midnight. Meller's cab, with Kaplan and three others inside, started after them. It pulled over and the four men emerged, masked and holding guns, and assaulted their targets. After resistance by one of the sergeants, they were forced into the car and Meller drove off. Weinberg was left, under guard, in an orchard in north Netanya, from where he was later taken to another orchard and released.
The hostages were taken to a specially-built underground chamber that had been made in the cellar of the inactive "Feldman" diamond polishing plant in the industrial area in the south side of Netanya. It was airtight and soundproof and its tiny entrance hatch was hidden by a thick layer of sand. Inside was a canvas bucket, a week's supply of food and two cylinders of oxygen which the sergeants were instructed to use to refresh the air in their cell. Every few days while they were there, the bucket was emptied and the food re-stocked.
Read more about this topic: The Sergeants Affair