2013 Bat Yam Bus Bombing

The Bat Yam bombing was reported as the first terrorist bombing in Israel since the November 21, 2012 bus bombing in central Tel Aviv.[1] That earlier attack occurred during Operation Pillar of Defense and wounded 29 people.[2] The December 2013 attack came during an active Israeli-Palestinian peace process; Police Inspector-General Yohanan Danino said the incident demonstrated that the threat of terrorism remained present while efforts were underway to advance negotiations.[2]

Bat Yam is immediately south of Tel Aviv. Dan bus route 240 traveled from Bnei Brak to Bat Yam,[2] with the Bat Yam cemetery identified as its terminus.[3] According to the later investigation account, the two brothers who prepared the device had decided roughly two months before the bombing to carry out an attack inside Israel.[4]

On December 22, 2013, at approximately 14:30–14:35, the Dan bus operating route 240 reached the intersection of Mivtza Sinai and Katznelson streets in central Bat Yam.[2] A passenger noticed a large black bag sitting on a rear seat, behind the bus's back door, with wires visibly protruding from it. A passenger opened the bag and alerted driver Michael Yuger, who asked whether it belonged to anyone, summoned police, and ordered the passengers to disembark. He was the last person to leave the vehicle.[2]

Police officers arrived as passengers and bystanders were being moved away from the vehicle. People near the scene were moved approximately 15 meters from the bus.[2] Yuger later said the device exploded roughly ten minutes after the evacuation.[2] The blast shattered the bus windows and badly damaged the vehicle; the U.S. State Department described the explosive as medium-sized.[5][2] The surrounding street was closed.[2]

One patrol officer helping keep bystanders away from the bus was lightly injured, reportedly suffering ringing in his ears. He was treated by Magen David Adom and taken to Wolfson Hospital in Holon; no passengers were wounded.[2] The U.S. Department of State's Country Reports on Terrorism 2013 also recorded that one policeman was slightly injured and that initial Israeli investigations characterized the incident as an act of terrorism.[5]

An ICT report identified the bomb as a pressure-cooker device containing approximately two kilograms of improvised explosives surrounded by nails and screws and activated by a mobile phone.[6] A later report added that the device included ball bearings and had been placed inside a black bag.[4] ICT's January report stated that a call to the attached phone detonated the bomb after it had been spotted and the bus evacuated, averting the intended heavy death toll.[7]

The investigation was transferred to the Shin Bet, and passengers were questioned following the attack.[2] On January 2, 2014, the Shin Bet announced the arrest of four Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives in connection with the bombing.[7] The detainees were identified as Yusef Salamah, 22; Shehada Ta'amri, 24; Hamdi Ta'amri, 21; and Sami Harimi, 20.[7] Shehada and Hamdi Ta'amri were brothers who had previously served time in Israeli prisons; Hamdi was also a Palestinian Authority police officer attending an officers' candidate course in Jericho.[7] A separate report said ten additional individuals were detained.[4]

According to the investigation account, the Ta'amri brothers prepared the explosive device after deciding approximately two months earlier to carry out an attack inside Israel. Sami Harimi allegedly received the bomb in a black bag, entered Israel from the southern Hebron Hills through a breach in the security fence, obtained transportation to the Jaffa area, boarded the route 240 bus, left the bag in the vehicle, disembarked, and called the phone attached to the device in an attempt to detonate it.[4]

During interrogation, Harimi reportedly disclosed that the cell had been planning a second, larger attack in the Tel Aviv–Jaffa area and revealed approximately 20 kilograms of explosive material hidden near his home.[4] The four detainees were also reported to have admitted planning a second, larger bombing in Tel Aviv.[7]

Immediately following the explosion, Israeli officials stopped short of definitively declaring a motive, with police saying they had not yet determined whether the act was criminal or nationalist; security officials nevertheless described the device as bearing the hallmarks of a terrorist attack and launched a search for those responsible.[8] Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino ordered increased police presence in crowded public locations nationwide, while police officials separately urged citizens to remain alert on buses, trains, and in shopping centers.[2]

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad both praised the attack but neither claimed responsibility for it.[3][8] Hamas spokesman Moshir al-Masri called it a response to Israeli actions and stated that it demonstrated that opposition could reach deep inside Israel.[8] In a separate statement, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum described the attack as a "response to the crimes of the occupation," while an Islamic Jihad source expressed hope that it would "usher the resumption of suicide attacks."[3] After arrests were made, senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad figure Khaled al-Batash also praised and welcomed the attack while declining to claim responsibility on behalf of the organization, stating that "the struggle is open and the resistance will continue."[4]

The United States government responded swiftly. The U.S. Department of State issued a press statement strongly condemning "the bombing of a bus near Tel Aviv," describing violent acts targeting civilians as "deplorable" and expressing solidarity with Israel and those affected.[9] Two other attacks occurred within 24 hours of the bus bombing: on December 22, Border Police thwarted a knife attack near Ma'aleh Adumim in the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — and the following day a Palestinian man stabbed a police officer in the back with a 15-centimeter knife outside Jerusalem.[10]

The Bat Yam bombing marked the return of terrorist bombings in Israel after more than a year's absence, creating a significant security concern while Israeli-Palestinian negotiations were active.[1] That the attack caused no fatalities was widely attributed to the alertness of the passenger whose warning gave the driver time to evacuate the bus before detonation.[7]

The four-man cell was arrested eleven days after the attack. The reported discovery of approximately 20 kilograms of explosives near Harimi's home underscored the scale of the alleged follow-up plot.[4][7] The investigation tied the bombing to individual Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives, although the organization itself did not formally claim responsibility for the attack.[7][3]

Several details of the attack are recorded inconsistently across sources. An early Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center report gives the incident date as December 21, 2013.[11] The ICT reports and the U.S. State Department's Country Reports on Terrorism 2013 date the bombing to December 22.[6][5] A contemporaneous Ynet account also supports December 22, which is the date used in this article.[2] Suspect names, ages, birth years, and transliterations also vary between the ICT and Meir Amit reports.[4][7]

Sources differ on the precise sequence surrounding the detonation. N12 reported that the device exploded before a bomb technician arrived, while Calcalist described a technician examining it after the blast.[12][13] A separate Ynet brief quoted a Dan bus company spokesperson as saying that a police bomb technician carried out a controlled detonation.[14] Accounts of the police responder's injury also vary: Ynet described a patrol officer suffering ringing in his ears, while another report identified the injured person as a police sapper hurt while attempting to defuse the device.[2][3]