Last Wednesday, shortly before 10:00 PM, large police forces arrived on Jabotinsky Street in Bnei Brak, along with a bomb disposal expert, after an explosive device was found inside a motorcycle.
The police closed the scene, and the bomb disposal expert neutralized the explosive device, which was sent for testing at the forensics laboratory at the national headquarters.
According to journalist Shimon Ifergan on the 'mako' website, who published an article about 'Crime is rampant in Bnei Brak,' the suspicion is that the target of the assassination was a criminal known to the police from Petah Tikva, who had recently begun operating within the city of Torah and Hasidism.
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A police intelligence officer told Ifergan: "A motorcycle bomb is a method of elimination used by criminals in the underworld in the 1990s, mainly in the war between the Ramat Amida and Pardes Katz criminal gangs, which exacted a heavy price in blood from both sides. In the past year, there have been several such cases. Criminals think they won't plant an explosive device on a motorcycle, which is relatively small.".
The defused explosive motorcycle is a glimpse into what is happening among the criminal organizations - who have marked Bnei Brak as a city they intend to take over, which has led to a series of shootings at homes and cars, the throwing of grenades, and arson attacks.
In the past two years, it has been revealed in MAKO that criminal organizations are beginning to infiltrate Bnei Brak, after they established casinos and gambling clubs there - and have also begun to engage in collecting sponsorship fees from businesses, providing loans and credit, as well as drug trafficking.
'Mako' notes that the police were not quick to address the phenomenon, and the criminals only strengthened their power in the Haredi city.
The wave of crime sweeping the streets is accompanied by the large-scale phenomenon of gangs, drug trafficking, and clashes between marginalized youth.
A city resident was quoted in the article: "There are threats against senior city officials from criminals who want to take over economic businesses in the city. Grenades have been thrown at their homes and cars have been shot at. The situation is only getting worse, some citizens are afraid that the next grenade or bullets will hit their children. Not a day goes by that we don't hear about a criminal incident in the city.".
For example, a little over two weeks ago, there was an attempted murder of the father of a known criminal in a kiosk he owned on Bar Kochba Street. A masked man entered, fired two bullets at the father, hitting him in the leg, and fled the scene.
A passerby in the area chased the assassin, who fled, leaving behind his motorcycle and gun. Several hours later, during the police search, a 29-year-old resident of Gedera was found in an underground parking lot, lying and hiding under a trailer. In addition, the police located the gun and the cartridge near the scene.
According to the 'mako' website, it is believed that it was sent by criminals who are in conflict with the victim's son, who was arrested for shootings, arson, and planting an explosive device.
Three days later, the perpetrator Zuriel Hajani, 25, who was close to the state witness who indicted the head of a criminal organization, was murdered in Bnei Brak. The killer ambushed Hajani while he was sitting in his car, shot him five to seven times, and fled the scene. No suspects have yet been arrested in the incident.
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""I agree that we fell asleep on guard," admits a senior police officer, "Today we are paying for it. We should have addressed this phenomenon immediately and not let the criminal organizations spread and wage wars among themselves at the expense of the residents' security and quality of life. We are now doing everything we can to eradicate crime and thwart actions that could harm innocent people.".
Yaakov Wider, a Likud city council member, wrote in a letter he sent to council members: "The residents of Bnei Brak have recently experienced an unusual wave of violence that includes explosions, shootings in the streets, tear gas grenades, arson, stabbings, and even a shocking case of murder. The residents of the city, which was previously considered the safest in the country, now feel a direct threat to their personal security, which has been severely damaged, and they are unable to understand how we got to such a situation.".
Wieder added: "The city has about a quarter of a million residents, and on Saturdays when the danger is immense, there are one or two vehicles in the entire city. This is urban lawlessness that could cost lives.".
