Police Foil Car Bomb Attempt Against Crime Boss in Ashdod

Police in Israel said Friday afternoon they thwarted an assassination attempt against a senior crime figure in Ashdod after finding and disabling an explosive device attached to his car. The operation was carried out by detectives from the Lachish District police’s Yamar unit and the Lahav 433 national organized crime unit, known as Yahal, which had identified intelligence indicating he was being targeted. The bomb was discovered around 2:00 p.m. in a vehicle parked outside a home and was neutralized by bomb disposal experts from the Lachish district. No one was hurt and there was no damage.

Following the incident, Lachish District commander Superintendent Eliyahu Shmuel held a situation assessment and ordered Yamar Lachish to lead the investigation, including collecting evidence, locating additional evidence, and making arrests of those involved.

The Ashdod case came at almost the same time as another deadly car bombing in the north. A 51-year-old man was killed near the Musheirfa junction on Highway 65, his wife was lightly injured, and police said the killing appeared to be criminally motivated. Their son had been murdered three months earlier.

The article noted that both incidents followed a string of explosions involving car bombs while driving. A week earlier, 35-year-old Leya Malka from Rishon LeZion was killed by a half-kilogram bomb in a car on the Ayalon Highway near the Holon Interchange, and her ex-partner was arrested as a murder suspect. In less than a month, at least six people were killed by exploding devices in moving vehicles, including two on Highway 40 in the Negev on June 1, Daniel Lugasi in a crash on the Coastal Highway near Or Akiva on May 26, and Obanekh Yitzhak Dinko in an explosion in Afula hours earlier.