On 22 March 1946, Gotthilf Wagner, the leader of the German Templer colonies in Palestine, was assassinated by the Haganah as part of the Jewish Resistance Movement.
[1] The British Criminal Investigation Department concluded that the assassination was influenced by Wagner's decision to instruct the population of Sarona not to sell any land to Jews.
[2] Wagner had previously been a member of the Nazi Party; this was given as a motive by some press reports at the time.
[3] On March 22, 1946, five members of the Palmach, acting on the orders of Yitzhak Sadeh, ambushed Wagner and shot him while driving with a police escort from the Wilhelma Detention Camp near the Lydda airport.
[5] As his car entered the outlying streets of Tel Aviv, it slowed down on account of heavy traffic.