Israeli Truck Driver Rescues 6-Year-Old Boy from Car Bomb Explosion in Jaffa

On Sunday morning, Alaa Fares, a truck driver from the village of Shaab in the Lower Galilee, risked his life to rescue a six-year-old boy from a burning car after it exploded on Saharon Street in Jaffa. The explosion occurred around 7:30 a.m., about 150 meters from a kindergarten, just days before the school year ended. Fares heard the blast and initially thought it was a gas balloon. Upon approaching, he saw the burning vehicle and heard the child crying for help. Inside the car were the boy and his father, Iyad Rab, 38, who died in the blast. Fares pulled the boy from the car moments before the fire spread, comforting him as the child repeatedly called for his father.

The boy was taken by Magen David Adom teams to Wolfson Hospital in Holon, where his condition was reported as moderate and stable. Authorities suspect the explosion was caused by an improvised explosive device planted in the vehicle as part of a blood feud linked to the killing of teenager Ahmed Jabari in Jaffa on Thursday.

Nearby residents described the explosion as a violent blast that shook their homes and filled the area with smoke. Hours later, a 25-year-old man from Jaffa was also critically injured in a separate car bombing on HaLohamim Street in Holon; he is known to police from previous conflicts. Additionally, two men, Adnan Ganem and Galem Abu-Ras from Kalansawa, were shot dead in what police believe is another blood feud, part of a violent dispute that has claimed nine lives, six within six months. Overnight, a 19-year-old named Bakr Nuseirat was fatally shot outside his home in Tayibe after returning from a wedding, with another young man seriously injured in the attack.