‘A great miracle’ – Synagogue attendees saved from terror blast

“If I hadn’t gone into the synagogue, I wouldn’t be standing here today,” a worshipper said.

By World Israel News Staff

Worshippers at a synagogue in south Tel Aviv are expressing their gratitude for being spared from harm after a large explosive device detonated just outside of the building on Monday evening.

At around eight p.m., an unidentified man was captured by security cameras walking on Lehi Street, wearing a backpack. According to security and police sources, there was a bomb inside of his bag.

In what appeared to have been an unintentional detonation, the device exploded, killing the man transporting it, and a moderately wounding a 33-year-old man who was riding an electric scooter nearby.

The blast rocked a synagogue just meters away, with worshippers saying it was a “great miracle” that more people weren’t wounded in the failed terror attack.

The explosion “happened in the middle of the Maariv prayer, there were 80 people in the building,” a synagogue attendee, who wished to remain anonymous, told Ynet.

If the terrorist “had entered the synagogue, this could have been a [mass casualty event]. A great miracle happened here.”

Ben, a resident of the neighborhood who frequents the synagogue, said he entered the building just minutes before the blast.

“If I hadn’t gone into the synagogue, I wouldn’t be standing here today,” Ben told Ynet.

Some 100 meters away from the synagogue is a busy commercial complex with numerous restaurants and stores.

That shopping plaza, which was crowded with people on Sunday evening, may have been the terrorist’s target, according to some witnesses.

A senior police official told Hebrew-language media that he was “99 percent certain” the bombing was terror-related, though Israel’s security agencies have yet to officially confirm that.

The Shin Bet immediately began investigating at the scene, indicating that the event was likely terror-related.

Tel Aviv District Police Commander Peretz Amar said in a media statement on Sunday evening that while the man’s identity is still unknown, it’s important to note that “he was not an innocent civilian. He was someone carrying an explosive device.”

Gruesome footage circulating on social media from the scene of the explosion showed that the man carrying the bomb had been dismembered by the force of the blast.