Fearing the fire would spread to the holds which contained explosives, Captain Monroe Fein ordered all aboard to abandon ship. People jumped into the water, whilst their comrades on shore set out to meet them on rafts. Begin biographer Daniel Gordis writes that although Captain Fein flew the white flag of surrender, automatic fire continued to be directed at the unarmed survivors swimming in the water. Begin, who was on deck, agreed to leave the ship only after the last of the wounded had been evacuated. Although civil war appeared imminent, a cease-fire was arranged by the evening of June 22. Mass arrests were carried out against Irgun soldiers who had joined their former comrades, and Irgun units in the IDF were disbanded, with their soldiers dispersed among other units. In all, more than 200 Irgun members were arrested. Most were released several weeks later, with the exception of five senior commanders (Moshe Hason, Eliyahu Lankin, Yaakov Meridor, Bezalel Amitzur, and Hillel Kook), who were detained for more than two months, until August 27, 1948. Eight IDF soldiers who refused to fire on the "Altalena" were court-martialed for insubordination.