The 1948 bombings in Cairo, which targeted Jewish areas, took place between June and September 1948 killing 70 Jews and wounding nearly 200. Riots claimed many more lives. In a meeting with the American Jewish Committee in New York in October 1948, the president of Cairo's Sephardi Jewish community, Salvator Cicurel, stated his belief that "the recent anti-Jewish outbreaks…[were] connected with the existence of Israel and the defeats of the Egyptian Army there."