It is not yet known what set of crowded downtown buildings the Palestinian terrorists were planning to blow up, but it is clear that the alertness of two Border Guard police volunteers at 2 AM this morning prevented the major catastrophe from happening.
The pair spotted two suspicious vehicles traveling in the area of Pardes Chana and Givat Ada from Wadi Ara, an Arab-populated area bordering the Shomron. Police ordered the drivers to halt, but they continued driving, abandoning the vehicles after a short distance and fleeing on foot. Inside one of the cars the two Border Guard volunteers found a 600-kilogram bomb, fuel, and a cellular phone attached to a battery. Sappers arrived on the scene and successfully detonated the huge bomb in a controlled explosion. The controlled blast was heard in Hadera, 25 kilometers away.
A massive manhunt for the terrorists, including helicopters, hundreds of policemen and dozens of checkpoints, began immediately. Arutz-7's Kobi Finkler added that the bomb was composed of a deadly combination of gas canisters and explosives. The local police chief said, "I don't even want to imagine what could have happened had that bomb gone off."
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said, "If that car had exploded, it would changed the entire situation."
MK Tzvi Hendel (National Union) told Ynet, "It looks like Prime Minister Sharon will wake up only after dozens of Jews are murdered in a mega-attack. In the meantime, only miracles are preventing the slaughter of Israeli citizens... The government [is] being dragged along behind the recklessness of Fuad [Ben-Eliezer] and Peres..."
MK Michael Kleiner (Herut) announced: "The government of Israel must respond to this mega-terror attempt as if the attack had succeeded. The army must bomb 'Gaza first' and pound the Palestinian enemy from the air until the formation of a new Middle East."
The pair spotted two suspicious vehicles traveling in the area of Pardes Chana and Givat Ada from Wadi Ara, an Arab-populated area bordering the Shomron. Police ordered the drivers to halt, but they continued driving, abandoning the vehicles after a short distance and fleeing on foot. Inside one of the cars the two Border Guard volunteers found a 600-kilogram bomb, fuel, and a cellular phone attached to a battery. Sappers arrived on the scene and successfully detonated the huge bomb in a controlled explosion. The controlled blast was heard in Hadera, 25 kilometers away.
A massive manhunt for the terrorists, including helicopters, hundreds of policemen and dozens of checkpoints, began immediately. Arutz-7's Kobi Finkler added that the bomb was composed of a deadly combination of gas canisters and explosives. The local police chief said, "I don't even want to imagine what could have happened had that bomb gone off."
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said, "If that car had exploded, it would changed the entire situation."
MK Tzvi Hendel (National Union) told Ynet, "It looks like Prime Minister Sharon will wake up only after dozens of Jews are murdered in a mega-attack. In the meantime, only miracles are preventing the slaughter of Israeli citizens... The government [is] being dragged along behind the recklessness of Fuad [Ben-Eliezer] and Peres..."
MK Michael Kleiner (Herut) announced: "The government of Israel must respond to this mega-terror attempt as if the attack had succeeded. The army must bomb 'Gaza first' and pound the Palestinian enemy from the air until the formation of a new Middle East."