Report: Bus driver got passengers off minutes before blast Thursday night

Channel 12 reports more details on yesterday’s botched bus bombing plot.

It says that on one bus in Tel Aviv, a terrorist boarded shortly after 8 p.m. with a bomb held in a bag, while several people were on the bus.

He sat down in the back and attempted to hide the bag below a seat, the network reports, before leaving. A woman whose suspicions were raised told the driver there was a suspicious item on board. The driver called his superiors, who told him to get all the passengers off. As he told them he was minutes from a bus park, his bosses told him to head there to keep the vehicle away from passersby.

After parking the bus, the driver got off, and police were called, but the bomb went off before they could arrive, destroying the vehicle.

Three empty buses exploded in quick succession in parking lots in the Tel Aviv suburbs of Bat Yam and Holon yesterday night and one or two more bombs were discovered on additional buses in Holon. (There have been conflicting reports on the matter, and much of the case is covered by a gag order.) No casualties occurred as a result of the explosions.

Channel 12 says all bombs apparently had the writing, “Revenge from Tulkarem” on them.