Man survives suspected criminal car bombing in central city

A man in his 50s was moderately wounded in a car bombing attempt in a residential area of the Tel Aviv suburb of Ness Ziona on Wednesday.

Security camera footage of the incident showed the car exploding as it was being parked, and going up in flames. Then a man limps out of the vehicle.

Medics who arrived at the scene took the man to the nearby Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot.

Fire and Rescue Services said they extinguished the flames. Police were investigating the incident with the assistance of forensic specialists, suspecting it was an assassination attempt over an apparent criminal dispute.

Last month, a car was set ablaze on Route 5 in a suspected car bombing attempt near Kafr Qasim, lightly wounding the driver in what police suspected was also a criminal hit attempt.

A week earlier, a woman was killed by a car bomb in Ramle and a passerby and her baby were injured by the explosion. It was the fourth death in December believed related to organized crime and came amid government efforts to crack down on violence in Arab Israeli communities.