A car bomb explosion in Ramle on Thursday evening killed four people and wounded eight in what is suspected to be the result of a clash between two crime syndicates.
The bomb killed a five-year-old girl, a 10-year-old boy, a 15-year-old girl, and a 50-year-old woman. A one-month-old baby boy was critically wounded as well. Medical staff at Shamir Medical Center in Tzrifin were fighting for his life at press time. A six-year-old girl and a 28-year-old man, both in satisfactory condition, were also receiving medical treatment at the hospital.
By press time, the victims had not been named.
As family members near and far gathered outside the hospital, clashes broke out between a few of them and police officers. Initial police suspicions are that the background for the attack – which crosses all lines – is a criminal schism between families in the Arab sector.
Police increased forces and units in the area.
The initial report was received by Magen David Adom’s 101 hotline. The explosion took place in the market area on Herzl Street. The parked car exploded on the sidewalk, directly next to a shop and an apartment building. Initial emergency treatment was given to 12 individuals.
MDA paramedics describe the incident
Of the 12 injured, five were unconscious and in critical condition after inhaling a significant amount of smoke. They were evacuated with continued resuscitation efforts. Two were in moderate condition with blast and shrapnel injuries, and five were in light condition with shrapnel injuries.
The five in critical condition were a middle-aged woman, a 15-year-old girl, a 10-year-old boy, a 5-year-old girl, and a 1-month-old infant.
Death pronouncements were released around 8 p.m.
תיעוד: עימותים אלימים פרצו בין משפחות פצועים מפיצוץ הרכב ברמלה לשוטרים ואנשי תקשורת מחוץ למיון ביה"ח אסף הרופא pic.twitter.com/pzLYLrwMT4
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MDA EMT Benny Cohen, who was the first to arrive at the scene, said he “saw a large commotion around a car that had exploded and caught fire. Several passersby were injured. We began providing medical treatment, and noticed that while we were there, the fire had spread to a nearby store.”
He explained that the car’s position by the store’s entrance prevented people inside from escaping. Firefighting teams soon arrived and “rescued the trapped from the store and residential building above the store. The rescued victims were unconscious, and our teams began advanced resuscitation efforts and transported them to hospitals in critical condition.”
MDA paramedic Liat Cohen said it was a “very severe incident. Our teams began providing medical treatment to those with moderate and mild injuries from shrapnel and blunt injuries and evacuated them to the hospital.”
Police chief Daniel Levi, appointed to the position just last week, promised to “chase whoever did this” and said that the police were on a mission.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has been slapped with sharp criticism for the national rise in crime and police violence as well as the derailment of the police under his command. On Thursday, at the site with Levi, he shut reporters down from commenting.
He said, “This is a very difficult and serious event, one that is the result of decades of abandonment of crime in the Arab sector. We’ve seen this throughout the last few years.”
Human rights groups have repeatedly pointed out that the numbers and rates of crime in the Arab sector have only gone up since Ben-Gvir took charge of the ministry two years ago.
The National Security Minister directed the blame at Attorney-General Gali Baharav Miara, who has refused to allow administrative detention arrests.
At the site, Yair Revivo, the mayor of Lod, which borders Ramle, called the event a “red line crossing.
“The police know exactly who is involved, but with the way the law is right now, the criminals need to be caught in the act, something which is nearly impossible to do. Changes to this reality are in the hands of the parliament, but no one is doing anything to move it forward. The time has come to send home any public representative who does not care for our personal safety.”•