Three buses exploded in Tel Aviv area parking lots on Thursday night, raising suspicions of an attempted, coordinated terrorist attack and prompting the Israeli authorities to halt all buses and trains nationwide. There were no injuries reported.
After the explosions, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that he had instructed the military to carry out “a massive operation” in the West Bank targeting militant hubs and had ordered the police and intelligence forces to step up preventive measures in Israeli cities to thwart any subsequent attempted attacks.
The three buses were parked at different depots in Bat Yam, a city south of Tel Aviv, Tzvika Brot, the city’s mayor, said in a statement. Unexploded bombs were also found in parking lots in the nearby city of Holon, the mayor noted.
Mr. Brot said he had ordered additional security patrols throughout Bat Yam. “The city will remain on high alert throughout the weekend,” he added. “However, the city’s routine continues as usual. There is no change to school tomorrow or any other activities.”
Ofir Karni, director of the Dan bus company, told Israeli news media that the last passenger on one of the buses that exploded had noticed a suspicious bag on a back seat and had alerted the driver. They drove into the depot, got off the bus and it exploded after they exited, he added.
The series of explosions in central Israel came on what was already a difficult day for Israelis and for the country’s tenuous truce with Hamas.
Four coffins said to contain the remains of hostages, including two children, who were captured from a community near the Gaza border in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack, were released and repatriated for burial on Thursday. But the Israeli military said in a statement early on Friday that only three of the bodies belonged to the hostages slated to be handed over.
One of the bodies it received could not be identified, it said, adding it did not belong to Shiri Bibas — the mother of the two children handed over — and did not match the identity of any other hostage. The military called the issue a “violation of utmost severity” of the cease-fire terms.
The attempted bus attacks around Tel Aviv, which no one has yet claimed direct responsibility for, could also undermine mediators’ efforts to get Israel and the militant group to negotiate the next phase of the cease-fire.
Since late January, the Israeli military has been conducting intense raids in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, saying it is trying to root out Hamas and other militant groups.
The operation across several West Bank cities has displaced roughly 40,000 Palestinians from their homes, making it the biggest displacement of civilians in the territory since the Arab-Israeli war of 1967, according to historians and researchers.
The military has destroyed houses and ripped up roads in what it has said is an effort to uncover improvised explosive devices. The operations have killed dozens of Palestinians, according to both the Israeli and Palestinian authorities.
Defense Minister Israel Katz directed the military to intensify those operations in refugee camps in the West Bank in response to the attempted attacks on Thursday.
“We will chase after the terrorists and destroy the terror infrastructure — whoever provides cover for terror will pay a heavy price,” he said in a statement.
A West Bank arm of Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, issued a statement that appeared to praise the explosions but did not explicitly claim responsibility for them.
The Israeli military said in a statement late on Thursday that it was working with intelligence authorities and the police to investigate the incident in Bat Yam. It said that “intensified antiterror activity” in the West Bank was continuing, and that it had blocked entry to certain parts of the territory “accordingly.”
Bus and train service in Israel will remain paused until the police and intelligence authorities give directives that it can resume, according to a statement from the transportation ministry.
Johnatan Reiss, Fatima AbdulKarim, Isabel Kershner and Aaron Boxerman contributed reporting.
Defense and Military Forces,Buses,Hamas,Tel Aviv (Israel),West Bank
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