On this day: Israeli embassy bombed

Nearly two years after that, two people – British-educated science graduates connected to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – were convicted of conspiracy to cause the bombings, and given 20 year sentences. A third defendant was found not-guilty.

On of them, Samar Alami had attended UCL, and it emerged during the trial that she had posed as a Jewish woman called Sarah Solomon in order to obtain a copy of the Jewish Yearbook and other information. She also had a list of prominent Jews in her flat.

The judge who sentenced the pair said their offence was tantamount to waging war in the streets of London.

What the JC said: The repairmen have been hard at work, but the signs of devastation are still unmistakable at the Israeli embassy…they say that, such was the force if the explosion, that it was a miracle that no one was killed or maimed. Bullets of glass flew across rooms; bricks cascaded on to unoccupied desks; a large chandelier crashed to the ground. No one was on the staircase beneath.

See more from the JC archives here.