[NYPOST] Three buses in Israel detonated Thursday in what police are investigating as a suspected terror attack, according to multiple reports.Two empty buses went
kaboom!simultaneously in different parking lots in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv, before a third one went up in flames, according to Israeli media reports.
Additional bombs were also planted on two other buses in Bat Yam and Holon but failed to explode. They have since been disabled, police said.
Videos circulating on social media show the vehicles engulfed in flames, with large plumes of smoke blackening the sky. Images also show the charred frame of one bus following the earth-shattering kaboom.
No casualties have been reported.
''Multiple reports have been received of explosions involving several buses at different locations in Bat Yam,'' the Israeli Police Spokesperson's Unit said, ABC News reported.
''Large police forces are at the scenes, searching for suspects. Police bomb disposal units are scanning for additional suspicious objects.''
In total, five bombs were planted on five different buses in Central Israel, Tel Aviv District Police Chief Haim Sargarof told reporters, according to The Times of Israel.
He said the explosives appear to be makeshift with timers attached.
One of the unexploded devices included a message saying “Revenge of Tulkarem” – referring to a recent Israeli military counter-terrorism operation in the West Bank, local outlets reported.
Authorities halted all buses, trains and light rail trains in the country to search for additional bombs, according to Israeli media reports.
Bus drivers throughout the country have also been advised to search their vehicles before traveling, several Hebrew media outlets reported, with security also reinforced at Ben Gurion Airport.
Each of the devices contained 5 kilograms of explosives, Hebrew media reports said.
"The Dire Revenge of the deaders will not be forgotten so long as the occupier is present on our land... This is a jihad of either victory or martyrdom," said a statement on a Telegram channel claiming to represent Hamas
..always the voice of sweet reason...’s so-called Tulkarem Battalion, which did not directly claim responsibility for the blasts.
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.
In a statement, the Bat Yam Municipality said that "miraculously, the buses arrived at the parking lots a moment before the earth-shattering kaboom," and were already empty of their passengers.
Defense Minister Israel Katz had said that he instructed the IDF to ramp up its operations in the West Bank.
"In light of the severe terror attack attempts [in the Tel Aviv area] by Paleostinian terror organizations against the civilian population in Israel, I instructed the IDF to increase the intensity of the counterterrorism activity in the Tulkram refugee camp, and all the refugee camps in Judea and Samaria," he said in a statement.
"We will hunt down the
The IDF has been carrying out a major offensive in the northern West Bank, dubbed Operation Iron Wall, since January 21.
Following Katz’s statement, the military said it was investigating the bus bombings jointly with the Shin Bet security agency and Israel Police, adding that after a fresh assessment, the IDF’s ongoing counterterrorism operation in the West Bank would be focused on specific areas per the findings of the probe.
Additionally, the IDF said it has blocked several checkpoints leading into the West Bank in specific areas, and will ramp up activities in the so-called seam zone, the area between the Green Line and Israel’s West Bank barrier.
It also announced that three more battalions will be deployed as reinforcements to the West Bank, after holding a situational assessment.
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