Three buses in a parking lot reportedly exploded in Israel Thursday night in what appears to have been a terrorist attack. No one was injured. Several other bombs were reportedly discovered on other buses, according to TPS-IL, an Israeli news agency.
Israeli officials have ordered all bus and train services halted while all vehicles are inspected for bombs following the three bus explosions. Three public buses exploded on Thursday night at around 8:30 PM as they sat at a bus depot in Bat Yam, a city located just south of Tel Aviv.
Firefighters arrived on the scene and put out the fires. The buses were empty at the time and no one was wounded.
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Two other explosive devices were found under other buses after the police and Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, asked drivers to stop buses and check for devices.
A preliminary police investigation determined that all the explosive devices were identical and equipped with a timer set to detonate on Friday, authorities said. The explosions took place just hours after Hamas released the bodies of four Israeli hostages held in Gaza. The hostages were the first eight that Israel believes are dead and to be returned during the current phase of the ceasefire.
“We need to determine if a single suspect placed explosives on a number of buses, or if there were multiple suspects,” Police spokesman Haim Sargrof said.
The buses had finished their routes and were in a parking lot, said Tzvika Brot, mayor of Bat Yam. He said one of the unexploded bombs was being defused in the nearby town of Holon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been receiving updates from his military secretary on the incidents and is expected to hold a security assessment, his office said.
Israel has conducted multiple military offensives against Palestinian militants in the West Bank following a Jan. 19 ceasefire.
Following the bus bombings, Defense Minister Israel Katz instructed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to ramp up operations in the West Bank.
“In light of the severe terror attack attempts [in the Tel Aviv area] by Palestinian terror organizations against the civilian population in Israel, I instructed the IDF to increase the intensity of the counterterrorism activity in the Tulkarem refugee camp, and all the refugee camps in Judea and Samaria,” he said in a statement where he used the West Bank’s biblical name.
“We will hunt down the terrorists to the bitter end and destroy the terror infrastructure in the camps used as frontline posts of the Iranian evil axis,” he added.
Israeli politician Benny Gantz said Thursday’s incident “should be treated like a mega-attack.”
“We must not look at the result – but at the intention. We must not repeat the mistake of the attack that was prevented in Megiddo,” he wrote on X. “To the attempt to murder dozens of Israelis on this difficult day – we must respond not only with tactical actions – but by directly intercepting the senders and the senders’ financiers, and using powerful tools against the terrorist nests themselves. We must exact a heavy price that the terrorist organizations will not forget.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.