Patria disaster

The SS "Patria" was an passenger ship that sank in the Mediterranean Sea on 25 November 1940. It was sailing from the port of Haifa. It was carrying about 1,800 Jewish refugees from Europe during World War II. The British government were deporting them from Palestine to Mauritius because they did not have visas. Zionist organisations opposed the deportation, and the paramilitary group Haganah planted a bomb in the ship to stop it from leaving Haifa. However, the Haganah miscalculated the size of the explosion: it killed 260 people and injured 172. The rest of the passengers were rescued by British and Arab boats that rushed to save them.
The British allowed the survivors to remain in Palestine on humanitarian grounds. 221 passengers were buried in the Carmel Beach cemetery in Haifa.