TEL AVIV (voa) – A man set off a bomb outside a Tel Aviv nightclub late Thursday, injuring two Israelis.
Authorities say casualties would have been higher if not for a security guard who shot and killed the man as he apparently tried to detonate a car full of bombs.
The single explosion scattered the other bombs and police conducted a sweep of the area to locate and neutralize them.
The incident was the second near-miss attack in the Tel Aviv area Thursday. Earlier, a bomb exploded under a tanker truck at Israel’s main fuel depot. The resulting fire was extinguished before it could ignite nearby petroleum tanks.
There has been no claim of responsibility for either bombing. Authorities said earlier they suspect the fuel depot blast was the work of Palestinian terrorists.
Israeli officials are warning of a wave of Palestinian terror attacks. Wednesday, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at a mall in the town of Rishon Letzion, killing himself and two Israelis.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the bombing and said it will carry out more attacks.
Reports earlier this week said Israel foiled a truck bomb plot aimed at Israel’s two tallest buildings, the twin Azrieli commercial towers in Tel Aviv. Authorities say the bombing plot involving one ton of explosives was discovered three weeks ago during Israeli military operations in the West Bank.
