A loud blast in the Ramat Elyashiv neighborhood of Lod on Friday night was a firebomb, apparently thrown by Arabs from the area, police said. The blast shocked neighborhood residents, and police found an additional two bombs that had been thrown at a yard of one of the neighborhood homes but had not exploded, they said.

The Ramat Elyashiv neighborhood is located next to the old city of Lod, and its residents are part of a religious Zionist "garin" sponsored by the Halamish organization, which sponsors Torah education in development towns. Police said that the culprits were local Arabs who targeted the neighborhood because of its religious Jewish population. Neighborhood residents said that the firebombing was just the latest, and worst, in a series of ongoing attacks – including attempted violence – by local Arabs against them, which have included scrawling swastikas and burning Israeli flags.