Major Terror Attack Averted At Haifa’s Lev Hamifratz Mall

A major terrorist car bombing was averted at a Haifa mall on Saturday night when one of several explosive devices hidden in a parked vehicle malfunctioned.
An Israeli mall.

“We believe this is a terrorist incident,” a police statement said.

After being alerted by an employee of the Lev Hamifratz shopping center, who reported hearing an explosion at about 8:30 p.m., police sappers were dispatched to scan the area.

The sappers found a partially exploded bomb in the trunk of a white Subaru car which was parked outside the shopping center.

A further search of the vehicle uncovered several more unexploded bombs, which were neutralized by the sappers. No one was injured.

It was not immediately clear how the vehicle managed to get past the security checks at the mall entrance. The car was registered to a woman who lives in Jerusalem, but police would not release her identity.

Police immediately moved to evacuate the mall, which was filled with shoppers, and sealed off the area.

A major road adjacent to the mall was also closed to traffic, as police went on high alert across the Haifa area. Roadblocks were erected and the police presence was increased in crowded areas.

Northern Police spokesman Moshe Weitzman told The Jerusalem Post that “dozens of kilograms of explosives” were uncovered in the car.

“We have gone on alert and will remain prepared,” Weitzman said.

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Tensions Rise In Israel After Jerusalem Bulldozer Terror Attack

A Palestinian construction worker crashed his bulldozer into a bus and sent a police car flying in the air in Jerusalem as tensions escalated following fresh Israeli air strikes on Palestinian militants.

The worker wounded two policemen before he was shot and killed by the officers who were in the car he rammed. There were no other injuries.

Overnight the Israeli air force struck a group of Palestinian militants, killing two. They were attacked after they fired an anti-tank missile towards an army patrol along Israel’s border with Gaza, the army spokesman’s office said in a statement.

On Wednesday night two other militants, also from Islamic Jihad, were targeted for assassination in an Israeli air strike that killed one and seriously injured the other.

The two Israeli targeted killings were the first since a massive operation into Gaza by Israel to halt rocket-fire into the country ended in mid January.

Abu Ahmed, an Islamic Jihad spokesman in Gaza vowed revenge.

“Our rockets and our resistance will not stop,” he said. “We know where and when we will take revenge for these crimes.”

A taxi driver identified by the first name of Dor said he witnessed the bulldozer attack and was the first to shoot towards the Palestinian bulldozer driver.

“I saw the police car fly into the air. He flipped it over twice, then continued dragging it toward a bus that was stuck in traffic,” he told Israel Radio adding he had fired four shots at the Palestinian and wounded him.

“Then a policeman came with his M-16 and finished him off finally,” he said.

It was the third such incident in the city in the past eight months. In the first one, in July, three bystanders and dozens other were wounded before the attacker was shot to death. In September the attacker was also shot after driving into a group of soldiers. Both men were residents of traditionally Arab east Jerusalem, Palestinians who have Israeli identification cards, but are not citizens.

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