Former Bat Yam mayor injured in suspected car bombing while driving through Tel Aviv
Shlomo Lahiani, man in another car lightly injured when blast goes off as ex-municipal chief heads along Ayalon highway; police rule out terrorism, suspect criminal attack
The former mayor of Bat Yam was injured by an explosion that struck his car as he drove along a major artery through Tel Aviv on Sunday, in what police suspect was an attack by criminals.
Shlomo Lahiani was lightly injured in the blast, as was another man in an adjacent vehicle. They were both taken to the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon.
The explosion in Lahiani’s car happened on a southbound lane of the Ayalon Highway near the La Guardia interchange.
Video shared on social media showed two damaged cars, with parts from one of them scattered across the road.
Speaking to media from the hospital, Lahiani said “everything is okay, all good.”
The Israel Police concluded that the explosion was not terror-related, and officers were working to establish the cause of the blast in Lahiani’s electric vehicle.
מלוכדים News: ר"ע בת ים לשעבר שלומי לחיאני נפצע קל בפיצוץ רכב סמוך למחלף לה גווארדיה, הנסיבות בבדיקה pic.twitter.com/DgTWXtNq4q
— ישראלי News (@Israeli1News) March 9, 2025
The initial suspicion was that a bomb had been attached to the car. Police official told Hebrew media that in the past few years Lahiani has drawn the ire of elements tied to organized crime.
Lahiani, 58, was jailed in 2015 after pleading guilty to tax offenses and for accepting bribes of some NIS 900,000 (around $250,000). He was released after five months, having served two-thirds of his sentence.
He was mayor of Bay Yam from 2003 until 2014.
According to Hebrew media reports, in the last three years Lahiani has been targeted at least three times with bombs, two of which were put on his car, including most recently in January last year. Another bomb was hurled at a restaurant owned by his family in Bat Yam in 2023.
In recent years, there have been numerous incidents of bomb attacks on cars amid feuds between rival organized crime groups, many of which have been fatal.
