IDF launches operation in West Bank after bus explosions

The police are investigating the bombing as a terrorist attack.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a military incursion in the West Bank after three empty buses exploded in quick succession in parking lots in Tel Aviv on Thursday night.

“The prime minister has ordered the IDF to carry out an intensive operation against centers of terrorism in Judea and Samaria. The prime minister also ordered the Israel Police and the ISA to increase preventative activity against additional attacks in Israeli cities,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

According to the Times of Israel, the police discovered and neutralized two more bombs on buses after three empty vehicles exploded in the suburbs of Bat Yam and Holon. The prime minister’s office described the incident as “an attempt to perpetrate a chain of mass bus bombings.”

Tel Aviv police chief, Haim Sargarof, told reporters that the attack “looks like something [that originated] in the West Bank.”

BREAKING: Three separate bus explosions rocked Tel Aviv, Israel in what authorities suspect was a coordinated terror attack.

– Two more devices were discovered on another bus and possibly the light rail.
– No injuries reported pic.twitter.com/1iO66jL1N3

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 20, 2025

Last month, the IDF launched a large-scale “anti-terrorism operation” in the Jenin refugee camp, which was later expanded to the Tulkarem refugee camp. According to Al Jazeera, the incursion is the largest IDF action in the area since 1967.

The fighting has displaced 40,000 Palestinians from the northern parts of the West Bank, the UN has said.

The escalation takes place a month into the Hamas-Israel ceasefire, which halted combat operations in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian militant group has since released dozens of hostages in exchange for Palestinians released from Israeli prisoners.