A catastrophic event was averted on Monday night after an obstacle placed on railway tracks between Akko and Carmiel was found.
There were no casualties and no damage was caused in the incident. An Israeli Arab in his 20s was arrested on suspicion of the act but was later released on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, as part of the ongoing Shin Bet investigation, attempts are being made to locate additional suspects involved in the planning of the attack. according to reports, the suspect who was arrested took advantage of the shutdown of the tracks due to the holidays and placed an improvised object to cause the train to derail on its route at the end of the holiday.
"An attempt to damage the railroad is a very serious incident and accordingly the law treats it with great severity," former Police Assistant-Chief Shahar Ayalon, who also served as fire and rescue commissioner and Israel Railways CEO told Walla.
"An attempt to damage the railroad is a very serious incident and accordingly the law treats it with great severity."
Former Police Assistant-Chief Shahar Ayalon
"It must be remembered that there are hundreds of passengers on the train At any given moment, any safety or security incident may turn into a mass disaster in a moment. There is also a built-in problem of rescue due to a significant challenge in accessing the railway."
Not the first attempt to derail a train
According to Ayalon, there have already been attempts in the past to place an obstacle or dismantle tracks to take the train off the track.
"These attempts were discovered by the railway's security unit, this is a unit that specializes in track security, patrols along the tracks all the time and periodically finds obstacles of a similar type to the one found during this incident."
Also, the train has additional means to detect an obstacle that has been placed on the tracks, but I will not go into detail for obvious reasons." The investigation of the suspect is done in conjunction with the Shin Bet, and a gag order has been issued on the rest of its details.