Israel doesn’t have ‘any sense of security’
We shouldn’t make anything of [these bus explosions] until we get more information. A lot of what I have heard thus far is, we don’t know this, we don’t know that, and we don’t know everything. It’s really very hard to build any synthesis on the basis of some scattered information half an hour into the incident.
For the time being, we don’t know much. But what we do know, whether the details are out or not, is how frantic the Israelis are knowing all too well that […] they don’t have any sense of security.
This is certain. Regardless of what just happened today, the idea is that their instinctive reflection, their immediate reaction to something like this is that “this is more of the same, we cannot feel secure in our country, we cannot feel secure in our own cities, we cannot feel secure in our own public transportation”.
All the promises that have been made by Israeli leaders that they’ll bring security to Israel … I’m not talking about the specifics of this case, but Israel continues to live in constant fear, in constant anxiety, in constant insecurity despite months of war, despite a year and a half of genocide, and despite dozens of wars that Israel has fought in the name of security.
Explosive devices intended for simultaneous detonation: Reports
Israeli media reports say all five explosive devices – only three of which exploded – were intended to detonate simultaneously. Channel 12 cited a security source saying that the blasts were meant to be a “strategic terrorist attack”.
The Times of Israel quoted Tel Aviv District police chief Haim Sargarof as saying that the devices were identical, had timers and appeared to be makeshift. The Public Transit Authority was instructed to stop and check all buses, trains and light rail trains.
Israel defence minister orders West Bank escalation after bus attacks
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz has instructed the military to intensify its operations in the occupied West Bank in response to the attacks on buses in Bat Yam.
“In light of the serious terrorist attacks that Palestinian terrorist organisations have tried to carry out in the Dan Bloc against the civilian population of Israel, I have instructed the Israel army forces to increase the intensity of activities to thwart terrorism in the Tulkarem refugee camp and in the refugee camps in Judea and Samaria in general,” Katz said, referring to the occupied West Bank.
“We will pursue the terrorists to the end and destroy the terrorist infrastructure in the camps that form the front line of the Iranian axis of evil,” he added. “The people who sponsor and shelter terrorism will pay a heavy price.”
Bus explosion attacks in Tulkarem linked to ongoing Israeli military offensive
Israeli authorities say there are suspicions that the bus explosion attacks are linked to Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank.
To provide some context, the refugee camps of Tulkarem, Jenin and Nur Shams have been the target of Israel’s widest and most violent military offensive waged in the Palestinian territory since 1967, when the Israeli occupation began.
It started a month ago, soon after Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement and Israel declared the occupied West Bank a front in its “multifrontal war”.
Since then, entire neighbourhoods have been razed to the ground and tens of thousands have been uprooted from their homes. The geography of the three refugee camps has been changed by the amount of detonations and demolitions that have been happening systematically in certain neighbourhoods.
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