2 Jewish Israelis, Palestinian said arrested in connection with botched bus bombings
IDF says it’s bolstering West Bank presence with 3 battalions after apparent attempt at large-scale terror attack thought to have originated there
Israel Police and the Shin Bet security agency were said on Friday to have detained two Jewish Israelis and a Palestinian in connection with explosions on three buses in central Israel Thursday night, as the IDF bolstered operations in the West Bank following what is thought to have been a narrowly averted large-scale terror attack.
The arrests come after three empty buses exploded in quick succession in parking lots in the Tel Aviv suburbs of Bat Yam and Holon on Thursday night and the discovery of two more unexploded devices on additional buses in Holon. No casualties were reported as a result of the explosions.
The case was placed under a gag order by the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court on Friday, and the Shin Bet did not comment on the reported arrests.
The Kan public broadcaster said two Jewish Israelis, one of whom is a taxi driver, were detained on suspicion of having driven the terrorists to the scene of the attack. According to the report, the two, from Bat Yam and Holon respectively, are also suspected of attempted murder.,
The perpetrators of the attack are still at large, the report said, adding that investigators have video footage of the explosives being laid.
According to Channel 12, police also detained a Palestinian who was in Israel illegally.
The report added that one of the Jewish Israelis was detained at around 4 a.m. on Friday, some six hours after the bombs went off.
The suspect was being brought for a remand hearing at the Tel Aviv court on Friday, according to the network.
Public transportation returned to normal Friday after buses were halted following the previous night’s explosions, pending security scans.
After police sappers neutralized the two undetonated explosives found on the Holon buses, Tel Aviv’s police chief told the press that the devices were affixed with a stopwatch, which he said was typical of those created in the West Bank.
According to Hebrew media, the bombs contained five kilograms (11 pounds) of makeshift explosives, and some bore written messages indicating they were placed in response to the IDF operations in the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem.
Though Hamas’s so-called Tulkarem Battalion lauded the explosions, it stopped short of claiming the would-be attack.
According to a Channel 12 news report, the devices were slated to explode on Friday morning, when the buses were in use, but went off early. Giora Eiland, a former IDF operations chief, speculated that the timers were incorrectly set.
“We may be lucky if indeed the terrorists set these timers to the wrong hour,” police spokesman Aryeh Doron said. “But it’s too early to determine.”
In a statement, the Bat Yam Municipality said that “miraculously, the buses arrived at the parking lots a moment before the explosion,” and were already empty of their passengers.
One of the undetonated devices was reportedly found due to an alert from a passenger, who notified the driver of a suspicious bag.
In security consultations following the explosions, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the IDF to carry out a massive counterterrorism operation in the West Bank, his office said.
The military said Friday that it would bolster its presence in the West Bank with three additional battalions after confirming on Thursday night that it had blocked several checkpoints leading into the West Bank in specific areas and would ramp up activities in the so-called seam zone between the Green Line and Israel’s West Bank barrier.
The army has been carrying out a major offensive in the northern West Bank, dubbed Operation Iron Wall, since January 21. On Friday, the army said it had detained some 90 terror suspects in the West Bank over the past week, including five overnight in the town of Iktaba near Tulkarem, and seized 15 firearms.
Visiting Tulkarem on Friday, Defense Minister Israel Katz said the previous night’s explosions “will not deter us,” adding that he had ordered the IDF to step up counterterrorism activities.
“We are at war with extremist Islamic terrorism and we will win, here, in Gaza, and everywhere,” said Katz.
Referring to hundreds of Palestinian prisoners released amid the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, Katz, using the West Bank’s biblical name, added: “I warn the terrorists who were released to Judea and Samaria, we have our eyes on you, and will hunt down and eliminate everyone who is involved in terrorism.”
Escalating violence in the West Bank has spilled over to the Tel Aviv area on several occasions since October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
In October 2024, Hamas terrorists from the Hebron area shot seven people dead at a train station in Jaffa.
The terror group also claimed a failed suicide attack in Tel Aviv in mid-August. The assailant was killed when his backpack exploded early, injuring a passerby, in the first attempted suicide bombing in the city in years.
Earlier that month, a Palestinian man killed two people in a stabbing attack in Holon, near Tel Aviv. On Thursday, the IDF razed the terrorist’s home in the northern West Bank.
Since October 7, 2023, troops have arrested some 6,000 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,350 affiliated with Hamas, according to the military.
The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority health ministry says that more than 900 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time.
The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.
During the same period, 48 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank. PJC
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