The Iranian-backed Hamas terrorist organization has claimed responsibility for an attempted — and failed — suicide bombing late Sunday night in Tel Aviv. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, another Gaza-based Iranian proxy and ally of Hamas, claimed responsibility for the “heroic operation” as well.
The Al-Qassam military wing of Hamas said in its statement that the two terror groups worked together to execute the “martyrdom operation” and pledged to continue similar attacks.
Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer told reporters Monday in a briefing that the attacker was a Palestinian Authority citizen and that the bomb in his backpack “exploded before he managed to reach a more heavily populated area.
“This is often the way with Hamas on the eve of potential deals to create quiet, to create peace in this region,” Mencer noted. “They always try and have these terrorist outrages in order to inflame the region; it’s unfortunately a classic strategy which we’ve become used to from the dedicated monsters of Hamas.”
Meanwhile, the Shin Bet is still working to identify the attacker, in part due to the need to collect his scattered remains and then conduct the necessary tests to determine who he was.
“We were called to the scene after citizens heard a loud explosion,” Magen David Adom (MDA) medic Nitzan Faraj said in a statement. “When we arrived, we saw the truck on fire, and next to it, a man about 50 years old was lying unconscious with severe multi-system injuries. Following medical tests, he was found without a pulse and not breathing, and all we could do was pronounce him dead on the spot.”
The explosion, which took place on Lehi Road, also moderately wounded a 33-year-old man who was taken to Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital), where he underwent surgery to remove shrapnel from his chest.
Confirmation that the explosion was indeed a failed terrorist attack took hours because the operative prematurely detonated the backpack he wore, which was filled a “powerful explosive device,” police said.
It was later discovered the bomber was just a few dozen yards away from a study hall (Beit Medrash) and synagogue which may have been his targets.
Miraculously, the bomber failed to reach a wedding with at least 100 guests was taking place at the time at the nearby synagogue. The celebrants heard the large explosion that shattered the evening’s calm, but not one person was harmed.
