Bus terror plot raises new, harder questions for Israel

On the day Israeli hearts were broken by Hamas’s grotesque and inhumane ceremony returning dead hostages in black coffins, including two small boys, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, public transport networks across the Jewish state were paralysed by an attempted mass terror attack.

It failed, fortunately, in that there were no injuries or deaths, but one bomb exploded minutes after a bus pulled into a station in the central city of Bat Yam and passengers alighted. Authorities are blaming Hamas after three buses in central Israel exploded and two devices on other buses failed to explode.

The bombs were makeshift, each containing 4-5kg of explosives with timers set to detonate on Friday morning, and designed to kill hundreds of civilians at peak hour. Israel’s bus, train and light rail systems were shut down for thorough searches.

In the demented language of a medieval-style anti-Semitic attack, a Telegram channel purporting to represent Hamas’s Tulkarem Battalion in the West Bank appeared to claim responsibility: “The revenge of the martyrs will not be forgotten so long as the occupier is present on our land … This is a jihad of either victory or martyrdom.” The despicable plot, coming while the Gaza ceasefire is in place and hostage releases continue, raises an acutely difficult question: Where to from here?

Hamas, with its leadership ranks weakened substantially by Israel since the October 7, 2023 terror attack in which 1200 Jewish civilians were massacred and 251 kidnapped, remains driven by venomous hatred and indifference to the safety of ordinary Gazans. Evil remains its lifeblood, evidenced by the fact one of the bodies released on Thursday was not that of Shiri Bibas, 32, whose sons, Ariel, 4, and Kfir, nine months, were the youngest hostages taken.

Israel is totally justified in demanding the release of all remaining hostages after forensic evidence showed one of the bodies handed over on Thursday was not that of Mrs Bibas or any other hostage. The Israel Defence Forces also said forensic evidence and intelligence showed the two boys had been “brutally murdered” by Hamas in November 2023.

Adding insult to injury, masked Hamas troops gleefully paraded the caskets, which were later found to include Hamas propaganda. Israelis and the Jewish diaspora around the world, including Australia, are entitled to wonder how long the nightmare will continue and what, if anything, will bring it to an end.

Part of the problem is the lack of a credible Palestinian leader, including among the moribund Palestinian Authority. In a recent step forward, initiated by the US under Joe Biden and finalised by Donald Trump, PA president Mahmoud Abbas signed a decree cancelling special “pay for slay” welfare payments to Palestinian security prisoners on the basis of the length of their sentences in Israeli jails, as well as extra stipends to families of terrorists killed while carrying out attacks.

But the malign influence of Iran intensifies the difficulties of finding a way ahead. During a recent meeting with officials in Tehran, the theocracy’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said “small, limited Gaza brought the Zionist regime, armed to the teeth and fully supported by America, to its knees”.

Israeli security services believe Iran was behind the failed bus bombings, with militants from the West Bank placing the devices around Bat Yam. The Shin Bet intelligence agency recently identified Iranian involvement in supplying weapons and training for assembling explosive devices, as well as transferring large amounts of money to the area.

Hamas’s diabolical behaviour over the return of Shiri Bibas is one reason the ceasefire is looking shaky. If anything, it has fostered greater suspicions and hatred. Any hope of lasting peace, however, depends on what the next phase will look like.