Israeli police discover massive car bomb

Israeli police today said they had discovered a huge car bomb brought into the north of the country from the West Bank.

It was one of the biggest bombs the police had ever discovered, northern region police chief Yaacov Borovsky said. “I think that this morning a very great tragedy has been prevented,” he told Israel radio.

The device consisted of about 1,350lbs of explosives, plus two barrels containing fuel and metal fragments.

The bomb was discovered when two cars aroused the suspicion of civilian volunteers serving with the police, because the cars were travelling very fast at about 2am, on a winding dirt road leading from the West Bank into Israel.

The volunteers gave chase and the drivers, believed to be Palestinian militants, abandoned the cars and got away on foot. The bomb was found inside one of the cars.

The bomb squad detonated the device in an open space, completely destroying the car. The two cars were heading in the general direction of the town of Hadera, where several Palestinian suicide bombings and shooting attacks have taken place in the past two years.

The bomb would have been set off by remote control via a mobile phone attached to the device, police said. The second vehicle was apparently to have served as a getaway car.

The police were hunting for the drivers who were believed to be still inside Israeli territory, Mr Borovsky said.

David Baker, an official at the Prime Minister’s Office, said the car bomb was the Palestinians’ gift to Israelis for the Jewish New Year, which begins at sunset tomorrow. “A New Year tragedy has been averted and many Israeli lives have been saved.” he told The Associated Press.