A car bombing that injured two brothers in south Tel Aviv on Saturday night was most likely a “work-accident,” and not an attempted underworld hit on the two brothers, Tel Aviv police said on Monday.
Though the Yiftach sub-district's investigation of the bombing on Ben Tzvi street is still not complete, an official with the Tel Aviv district said Monday that as the investigation continues there is more and more reason to believe that the bomb was put in the car by brothers Shaul and Yaniv Peretz before the explosion, and they were taking it to a different location to use in a hit on a rival.
On Sunday night, police arrested a friend of the brothers, who witnesses said was in the car moments before it exploded. The witnesses said the third man got out of the car with the brothers when they stopped at the kiosk on Ben-Tzvi, but stayed behind in the store while the brothers returned to the car. The vehicle exploded while the man was inside the store, and he then fled the scene on foot.
Though they believe the bombing was most likely accidental, police are also weighing the possibility that the friend planted the bomb in the car and stayed behind in the kiosk while he telephoned someone else to detonate the explosives.