We live in fear: Car explosion leaves two dead, as Ramle residents rage against Police impotence

Two women were killed in a car explosion on Highway 200 near Ramle on Wednesday, as residents fumed over a lack of police protection.

The incident was categorized as criminal, and police opened an investigation into the situation, with engineers and forensics officers combing the area.

The two women are believed to be a mother and daughter, according to the Abraham Initiative. Reports indicate they were murdered as part of a conflict between two crime families.

Firefighters and Magen David Adom arrived on the scene after a loud explosion was heard in the area around 5 p.m.. 

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Paramedics were unable to immediately access the victims due to the intense fire blazing until firefighters extinguished the burning vehicle, after which they pulled two people from the car. Both were declared dead at the scene.

Medical authorities were still unsure of their identities at press time.

Recurring crime issues

This is the city’s third such incident in past months. In September, four people, including a baby, were killed in a car bombing, and eight were wounded.

A week before that, another car bomb killed Mahmoud Abu Ganem in the south of the city near a kindergarten and yeshiva.

Ramle residents told Maariv of their frustration with the police and, in particular, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

“The police will come out with slogans yet again, Ben-Gvir will continue to speak in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, and at the end of the day, we, the residents of Ramle, live in fear.

“Such an event, which is a criminal attack in every sense of the word, as the police have already noted, can exact a price on innocent victims. It’s not in a specific place or in a specific neighborhood. Crime is rampant throughout the city, everywhere. [People are] afraid to walk the city’s streets.”