Shortly after 10 a.m., a truck driven by an Israeli Arab plowed into a bus stop in front of the military intelligence and Mossad base, also hitting a bus carrying a group of pensioners who had arrived in Glilot, north of Tel Aviv, to commemorate Jewish Holocaust Remembrance Day on October 7. A 70-year-old man died hours later in hospital, and 32 others were injured.

The truck driver was killed by an armed civilian. Hamas issued a statement praising what it called a “heroic operation” near Mossad headquarters, saying it was “a natural response to Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem.”

The police immediately declared it a terrorist attack, but have not yet issued any official statements pending the results of the autopsy. The family of the driver, Rami Natur from Kalanswa – an Arab city near the demarcation line with Tulkarem (West Bank) – said that he suffered from health problems, probably related to his heart. The autopsy will clarify whether he actually felt ill while driving. However, this information does not seem to match the accounts given by witnesses.

The owner of the company Rami Natur worked for explained in a television interview that the driver “should not have been on that road; he had deviated from his original route. He was supposed to go somewhere else and instead he drove away until he reached the scene of the accident.”

Other witnesses said the truck accelerated sharply as it approached the bus stop, crashing into people who had just gotten off the bus. Deborah, one of a group of pensioners involved in the accident, said: “We saw the truck accelerate; we heard a loud bang and everything went haywire. There was a thick cloud of smoke and we thought it was an attack.” A paramedic from the Magen David Adom ambulance service described the scene as “an extremely complex incident,” saying several people were trapped under the truck or injured in the immediate vicinity.

The site of the incident is the closest bus stop to the Glilot military base, an area usually crowded with soldiers. The fact that several major roads converge there has been a source of concern for years: the ease of access to the site seems at odds with the military’s confidential operations inside the base. In addition, the logistics activity outside is visible to anyone passing by.

The base also serves as a strategic center for intelligence operations for Unit 8200, which is responsible for gathering critical information to conduct sophisticated operations aimed at national security. Sunday’s attack was the fourth since October 1; during the month there were