Man Killed in Car Blast in Kiryat Gat; Police Suspect Criminal Assassination

A man was found dead on Thursday inside a car that exploded and caught fire on HaRimon Street in Kiryat Gat. Police said the victim was known to them and opened an investigation on suspicion that the killing was a criminal hit.

Southern District officers, including bomb disposal experts and forensic investigators, were sent to the scene and began collecting evidence. Firefighters from the Kiryat Gat station worked to extinguish the blaze, prevent it from spreading, and search for anyone trapped inside. The fire also damaged several nearby vehicles.

The emergency call was received at 1:42 p.m. by the Lachish 101 dispatch center. Magen David Adom crews secured the firefighting operations and later pronounced the man dead at the scene. MDA paramedic Aviad Ben Hamo said, “We received several reports about a car that exploded. We arrived and saw the car burning. During the firefighters’ suppression efforts, we saw a man with no signs of life, and we had to pronounce him dead at the scene.”

The report noted that six days earlier, Imad Agbaria, 51, was killed in a car explosion near Moshayrfa on Route 65, and his wife, who was in the car with him, was lightly injured. Investigators said that case was a criminal assassination, part of a recent string of explosive attacks while driving. A week before that, Liah Malka, 35, from Rishon LeZion, was killed by a half-kilogram explosive device in a car on the Ayalon Highway near Holon Junction; her ex-partner was arrested and is suspected of murder.