This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/6181

"Peace Talks" Lead To Terror: Arabs Plant Bus Bomb in Bat Yam One Injured As Passengers Have Miraculous Escape

December 22, 2013

Police: Bat Yam Bus Bomb Was a Terror Attack
Police said that the explosion on the number 240 bus from Bnai Brak to Bat Yam was set off by Arab terrorists. David Lev

Passengers on a bus in Bat Yam where a bomb exploded Sunday afternoon attributed the fact that no one was killed to a miracle. Police said that based on their initial investigation, the explosion on the number 240 bus from Bnai Brak to Bat Yam was due to a bomb placed by Arab terrorists.

One person – a police bomb squad officer – was injured as he approached a suspicious package on the bus. A spokesperson for the Dan Bus Company said that there twelve passengers on the bus when a passenger alerted the driver that there was a suspicious object on board. The object was in a bag, which one of the passengers opened. Noticing there were wires coming out of the bag, the passenger alerted the driver, who immediately evacuated the passengers.

Witnesses said that there was a gaping hold in the back third of the bus, indicating that the explosive device was a large one. "Imagine if the bus had been full, or if the driver had not taken everyone off the bus, or if everyone had ignored the bag," said one witness. "It was a miracle everyone was saved."

The police officer who was hurt when the bomb went off was lightly injured, police said. The device exploded as he went on the bus, and he was injured by flying shrapnel which hit him as was entering the bus.

The driver of the bus, Michael Yoger, told reporters that "a woman told me that there was an unattended bag on the bus. I asked who it belonged to, but no one answered, and when I realized that it had just been left there I took all the passengers off the bus. Within ten minutes the bomb exploded.

"The bag was large," said Yoger. "One of the passengers opened it and saw wires. It was definitely a miracle that we were all saved."

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/175418

MK, Police Chief Link Bus Bomb to 'Peace Talks'
MK Struk: stop releasing jailed terrorists. Prime Minister's spokesman confirms bomb near Tel Aviv appears to be a terror act.

Gil Ronen

MK Orit Struk of the Jewish Home (Bayit Yehudi) party called on the Israeli government to stop releasing Arab terrorist murderers from jail, following the terror attack Sunday on a bus in Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv. The release of the murderers has been presented to the public as a "gesture" accompanying "peace talks" with the Palestinian Authority (PA).

"The release of terrorists is the fuel on the fire of the terrorism that is returning to our streets," MK Struk said. "I call on the government to stop the release of terrorists and bring back sanity, responsibility and security to Israel."

Police Commissioner Lt.-Gen. Yohanan Danino also made a connection between the terror attack and the diplomatic process, although not necessarily in the same sense that Struk did. "The event in Bat Yam demonstrates that the terror threat is in the background, especially during these days in which an attempt is being made to advance the diplomatic negotiations," he said.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's spokesman, Ofir Gendelsman, said on Twitter that the Bat Yam explosion apparently was indeed a terrorist act. "It seems that the bomb that blew up in a bus near Tel Aviv was in fact a terror attack," he said.

Minister of Public Security Yitzhak Aharonovich said that "At this point in time our impression and understanding is that this is a nationalistic act; I call on the public to show alertness and report to the police about any suspicious event."

Earlier, a police spokesman confirmed that the bombing was a terror act.

Bus bombings were a recurrent nightmarish phenomenon in the the murderous terror war launched in 2000 that killed 1,178 Israelis by 2009, 70% of them civilians. There were over 20,000 attacks in that period, including 144 suicide bombings. The peak of the terror war was in 2002, and it had largely tapered off by 2005. Bus bombings were relatively rare in recent years. The latest such attack took place in Tel Aviv during the 2012 counterterror operation Pillar of Defense, launched by the IDF against Hamas in Gaza. Twenty-nine people were injured in that attack. The terrorist who planned the attack was recently killed by the IDF.

On March 23, 2011, a terror bomb planted near Jerusalem's Convention Center killed British tourist Mary Gardner and injured 67 others. The terrorist who planned that attack was sentenced to life in jail.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/175422

This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/6181