During the lead-up to the 1948 Palestine war the Cairo-Haifa train was mined by the Jewish group Lehi several times. The train was attacked because it was used by the British soldiers. The attached military coaches were targeted. On March 31, the train was mined near Binyamina, a Jewish settlement in the neighborhood of Caesarea, killing 40 persons and wounding 60. The casualties were all civilians, mostly Arabs. Although there were some soldiers on the train, none were injured. The Palestine Post and the New York Times attributed the attack to Lehi.