4 killed, including 3 children, and several others wounded in Ramle car explosion
Officers probe if vehicle or nearby stores were target of criminal — not terrorist — attack; new police chief vows to ‘pursue everyone’ responsible; Ben Gvir points blame at AG
An explosion in the central city of Ramle on Thursday killed four people and wounded nine others, including several injured in a fire sparked by the attack that spread to two nearby stores.
Police said the explosion is believed to be linked to criminal activity in the city, and was not being investigated as a terrorist attack.
Speaking at the scene Thursday evening, Israel Police chief Daniel Levy vowed to “pursue everyone who did this. We, the Israel Police, promised and will keep that promise not to give up on catching any criminal, anyone who seeks to harm citizens or innocent people.”
Levy, who was sworn into the job a few weeks ago, said the reality in which “innocent people went to go shopping” and were wounded in the explosion “has no place in the State of Israel.”
The four victims who were killed were later identified by Hebrew media as Daa Abu Halawa, 50, and her two children Sila, 14, and Muhammad, 10, as well as Leen Mugrabi, age 24. A two-month-old baby was critically wounded, according to Magen David Adom, and was being treated at the Shamir Medical Center.
MDA said that 13 victims at the scene were brought to Shamir and to the Kaplan Medical Center for treatment. Shamir said Thursday evening that four of the victims had died and a fifth, the baby, remained in life-threatening condition, while five other victims were moderately and lightly injured.
פיצוץ רכב ברמלה: 5 עוברי אורח נפצעו, חנויות עולות באש
יממה לאחר ששני בני אדם נרצחו, רמלה שוב בוערת: פיצוץ עז אירע ליד השוק, 5 עוברי אורח נפגעו קל עד בינוני. הרקע ככל הנראה פלילי pic.twitter.com/wRURCm53yH— יוני בן מנחם yoni ben menachem (@yonibmen) September 12, 2024
Several people were hurt after they fled into two nearby stores following the explosion, and were injured in a fire sparked by the blast.
Initial reports said police do not believe the car exploded due to a bomb rigged to it, but rather that the explosion may have been triggered by a Molotov cocktail or a grenade, and it was not immediately clear if the car was the target.
According to the Kan public broadcaster, the explosion is thought by police to be tied to an ongoing dispute between the Jarushi and Abu Zaid crime families, and that the car and the stores were tied to the Jarushis.
Benny Cohen, an EMT with MDA, said he arrived at the scene to a “large commotion around a car that had exploded and caught fire.” As they began treatment, he said, they noticed “the fire had spread to a nearby store. The burning car was parked next to the store entrance, which prevented people inside the store from getting out.” Firefighters went in to rescue victims from the store and the apartment building above it, who were brought out unconscious, added Cohen.
Speaking at the scene of the attack on Thursday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir claimed the explosion was “the result of decades of neglect of crime in the Arab sector.” Ben Gvir also laid the blame on Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, for refusing his request to use powers of administrative detention against criminal suspects.
“If we could go tonight and arrest all the crime families, all the criminals, it would change the situation,” Ben Gvir added. “We know exactly who they are, we have lists of them, which we presented to the attorney general a year ago and six months ago — it’s the same people.”
The State Attorney’s office has said Ben Gvir’s demand to use such a sweeping tool — the ability to hold suspects without charge for indefinitely renewable terms of up to six months — is a “threat to democracy.”
Administrative detention is used in certain situations against Palestinian security suspects, and in a handful of instances against Jewish terror suspects. Ben Gvir has long decried the tool being used against far-right Jewish suspects, while seeking to expand its use elsewhere.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid accused Ben Gvir of always seeking to blame others for failures on his watch.
“Ben Gvir stands at a still-bleeding crime scene and instead of taking responsibility, he can’t stop — as always — whining about the attorney general,” wrote Lapid. “There were failed ministers before him, but he is the first who has turned failure into a career.”
The explosion came less than a day after two murders in Ramle, and a week after a car explosion in the city killed a man suspected to have ties to criminal organizations.
Many Arab Israeli community leaders say police have failed to crack down on powerful criminal organizations and largely ignore the violence, which includes family feuds, mafia turf wars and violence against women. Ben Gvir entered office in late 2022 vowing to crack down on such crime, but homicides have continued unabated, with 109 members of the Arab community killed in violent crimes in the first half of 2024, according to the Abraham Initiatives nonprofit.
