A vehicle exploded Thursday morning on one of Israel’s busiest highways, during one of the week’s peak traffic hours, near the Holon Interchange on the Ayalon Highway.
Magen David Adom paramedics pronounced the woman who had been inside the vehicle dead.
Police said the incident was criminal in nature, and Ayalon District officers and Tel Aviv District bomb disposal experts opened an investigation into the blast.
However, it remains unclear whether the explosion was an assassination or a “work accident,” meaning whether the woman killed had brought the explosive device into the vehicle. According to initial details, the victim was not known to police.
MDA said the report of the car explosion on Highway 20 was received at its Ayalon regional dispatch center at 9:20 a.m. Large police forces were called to the scene alongside rescue teams.
MDA motorcycle unit emergency medics Neria Hajbi and Orel Toledano said: “We received a report of a car explosion, arrived quickly at the scene and saw the vehicle on fire, with a person lying nearby without a pulse or breathing and with burns on her body. We carried out medical checks. The injury was very severe, and we were forced to pronounce her dead.”