Israel Foils Palestinian Bus Bombing Plot After Accidental Detonations
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Israel foiled a plot Thursday by Palestinian terrorists to blow up several buses after some of the explosives blew up prematurely on empty buses, alerting authorities to the overall plan.
The Jerusalem Post reported:
Several buses exploded in various locations across central Israel on Thursday evening in a planned mass terror bombing attempt by Hamas-affiliated terrorists in the West Bank.
At least three bombs exploded buses in the area of Bat Yam, Israel Police said.
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Explosives weighing four to five kilograms were found, intending to explode on Friday morning in order to kill hundreds of civilians, the Tel Aviv Police District Commander Asst.-Ch. Haim Sargaroff updated late on Thursday evening.
The Times of Israel added:
According to a Channel 12 news report, the devices were slated to explode on Friday morning, when the buses were in use, but were set off early. Giora Eiland, a former IDF operations chief, speculated that the timers were incorrectly set.
The network also reported that one of the undetonated devices was found due to an alert from a passenger, who notified the driver of a suspicious bag, and that police believe several suspects were involved in planting the bombs.
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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.
Israel has been fighting a sporadic war against Hamas-linked terrorists in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), alongside the more open conflicts against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.