Israeli Embassies in India and Georgia Attacked

In New Delhi, India on Monday, the wife of an Israeli diplomat was injured when a bomb attached to her car exploded while she was driving. Just after dropping her kids off to school, according to Israeli media accounts, the bomb detonated. She was able to complete the drive to the Israeli Embassy where she was taken to a hospital for medical treatment.

Witnesses reportedly saw a motorcycle driving near the car and a local investigation is being pursued accordingly.

“We almost knew something was going to happen, we just didn’t know what date and time,” Rabbi Tzvi Rivkin in India told The Algemeiner. Rabbi Rivkin is the Chabad emissary in Bangalore.

A video can be seen below of the car on fire, following the explosion.

Also on Monday, in Tbilisi, Georgia – the country’s capital – a staffer at the Israeli embassy was targeted with a bomb placed underneath his car. The man was able to pull over because of a sound he heard coming from underneath his vehicle, and he was able to alert authorities. The bomb was dismantled before an explosion.

Georgia is just north of Azerbaijan, where an attack on Israelis was thwarted in January after domestic authorities arrested three.

“There was one attempted attack, and one successful, as it were,” a spokesman for Israel’s foreign ministry, told Reuters. “In both cases, the people concerned worked with the Israeli embassies.”

While addressing the Knesset on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made it clear that he believed Iran was involved in Monday’s attacks.

“Iran, which stands behind these attacks, is the largest exporter of terror in the world,” he said.

“We know exactly who is responsible for the attack and who planned it and we’re not going to take it lying down,” Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said to Haaretz on Monday.

These attacks come almost 4 years to the day that Imad Mughniyeh was killed. Mugniyeh was one of Hezbollah’s most senior officials.

In all of the recent attempts, Netanyahu said, “Iran and its proxy Hezbollah was behind the attacks”

Rabbi Rivkin said that despite Monday’s attacks, he and his wife felt safe in India.

“In general, the government and police support us, the local Muslim community support us. They don’t understand exactly who they are, they know we’re from Israel, and we keep in touch. I don’t want to say we’re friends but we keep in touch,” he said.