TEL AVIV — A series of explosions hit at least three empty buses in central Israel late Thursday night in what officials said was a suspected terrorist attack. Undetonated explosives were also found, officials said.
Five explosives were found, said Haim Sargrof, commander of the Israeli police’s Tel Aviv district. Several of the bombs were planted on buses that exploded in parking lots in the city of Bat Yam, a suburb of Tel Aviv, said Bat Yam Mayor Tzvika Brot in a statement on social media. Explosives were also found and neutralized in a parking lot in the nearby city of Holon, he added. No one was harmed.
“There was big luck. A significant attack was thwarted,” Brot said in a video posted to Facebook. He said an increased police presence will continue in the city until the end of the week.
“The bus event tonight should be treated like a mega attack. We must not look at the outcome, but at the intent,” said Benny Gantz, a centrist Israeli politician and former defense minister. “We must exact a heavy price that terrorist organizations will not forget.”
Police and home-front command personnel and other emergency teams responded to the situation.
After the explosions, Hamas’s military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, put out a statement attributed to the West Bank-based Tulkarm Battalion saying that “the revenge for our martyrs will not be forgotten as long as the occupier remains on our land.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a security meeting Thursday night, his office said.
Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the Israel Defense Forces to “intensify counterterrorism operations” in all refugee camps in the West Bank, including the Tulkarm refugee camp. “We will hunt down the terrorists relentlessly and dismantle the terror infrastructure in these camps, which serve as forward bases for Iran’s axis of evil,” Katz said in a statement published by his office.
After the security meeting, the Israeli military said it had blocked entry points to certain areas of the West Bank and had begun intensifying operations there. Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the IDF chief of staff, directed the military to assist the police.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on X that for 16 months, Israel has “fought terrorism on all fronts” without allowing it to rise again. “As we feared, the mass release of terrorists and the ceasefire are being perceived by our enemies as weakness, giving momentum to terrorism,” he said.
The far-right politician said Israel must respond with an “immediate return to combat and the systematic eradication of terrorism until its destruction” in Gaza and the West Bank.
The police urged the public not to approach the explosion sites and to be vigilant for suspicious objects.
Westfall reported from Washington.