Police Investigate Series of Attacks on Barak Abramov’s Japanika Restaurant Chain in Central Israel

In a rare night of violence across the Dan region, four criminal incidents occurred within hours, including two grenade explosions, a pipe bomb detonation, and an attempted arson. Three of these attacks targeted branches of Japanika, a restaurant chain owned by businessman and Beitar Jerusalem soccer club owner Barak Abramov.

Shortly before midnight on Monday, a grenade exploded in the lobby of a residential building on Hermon Street in Beit HaPark, Or Yehuda, near Kiryat Ono, damaging the entrance glass but causing no injuries. While police and bomb squad personnel were investigating, a second grenade detonated at a Japanika branch on HaKiriya Street in Kiryat Ono, just a few hundred meters away, damaging the restaurant’s front but again causing no harm to people.

Police linked these events to an earlier incident on Saturday night when a pipe bomb exploded outside another Japanika branch on Jabotinsky Street in Ramat Gan, damaging the facade but injuring no one. Two days prior, an arson attempt was made at a Japanika location on Derech HaShalom Street in Givatayim, causing minor damage as the fire did not spread.

Investigators from the Dan District are collecting security footage, forensic evidence, and other clues from all scenes to determine if the attacks were carried out by the same perpetrators. The investigation into the grenade explosion in the Or Yehuda residential building is ongoing, with no confirmed connection to the restaurant attacks yet. Police are exploring all leads but currently believe the incidents have a criminal motive. No suspects have been arrested so far.