Israel-Hamas: Bomb blast in Tel Aviv was a terrorist attack, Israeli police say | LiveNOW from FOX

you are taking a live look at Tel Aviv Israel right there as a Bomb Blast in Tel Aviv late on Sunday has been confirmed as a terrorist attack that's according to Israeli police as well as the domestic intelligence agency the man carrying the bomb which exploded near a synagogue was killed and a passer by was injured that is according to police at the scene Sunday's explosion came about an hour after US Secretary of State Anthony blinkin arrived in Tel Aviv to push for a ceasefire in Gaza that would end the 10-month war between Israel and

Hamas there has been increased urgency to reach a ceasefire deal amid fears of an escalation Across The Wider region Iran has threatened to retaliate against Israel after the assassination of Hamas leader in Tyron on July 31st and today US Secretary of State Anthony blinkin called the latest diplomatic Push by Washington to achieve a ceasefire deal in Gaza quote probably the best maybe the last opportunity urging all parties to get the agreement over the Finish Line ceasefire negotiations are set to continue this week in Cairo following a two-day meeting in Doha last week this is Lincoln's

ninth mission to the Middle East since the conflict began and the trip days ahead of new talks expected this week in Egypt comes amid fears the conflict could widen a deeper Regional War following the killings of top militant commanders in Lebanon that Iran blamed on Israel for more on this I do want to bring in Ken Gray who is a security expert as well as a senior lecturer at the University of New Haven Ken as always thank you for taking the time to speak with us we appreciate it good morning Stephanie glad to be with

you I do want to start off with the breaking news as Israeli police have confirmed that the bomb explosion that happened late yesterday was a terrorist attack one person killed one person injured this comes as secretary of state blinkin is in Tel Aviv for those ongoing cease uh fire negotiations what can you share with us so the bomber uh was carrying a backpack bomb and it is believed to have prematurely detonated uh that he was uh on the street no real Target a parent near him uh consequently it's believed that this was a premature detonation

uh and not the intended target uh the bomber in this case Gideon Perry a 50-year-old Israeli um and it's the target is unknown at this point as to uh What uh Perry was intending to bomb with this with this bombing but uh nonetheless uh interesting you know there's been missiles there's been drone attacks but but uh this is uh a a terrorist bombing here which seems uh unusual considering all the amount of ordinance that's been flying through the air lately absolutely security already ramped up and now Tel Aviv on a high Terror alert is this

coincidental the timing of this or do you think that there was a further message behind this bombing as blinkin is in Tel Aviv for these ongoing ceasefire negot ations so it's unknown uh BL blinkin was in Doha and now he's over in Tel Aviv uh trying to push through uh this ceasefire agreement uh I think that uh blinkin is being very very uh hopeful with his statement about the this being uh the final chance um I I think the two sides are very far apart Hamas was not even present there in Doha for this latest

round of negotiations uh the the bridging document that uh Lincoln was proposing as the uh the the way to get both sides to agree to it had a lot of things in it that just were unacceptable to one side or the other so I if blinkin was the in uh if uh the blinkin was the intended target there's no indication that uh that this person could have been even able to get close to Blink and much less carry out this bomb but the fact that it detonated on the street uh way away from everything shows

that we don't know what the intended target was well let's talk about the ceasefire negotiations you were saying that the the the public statement that this is the best chance and really the last opportunity as you mentioned Hamas wasn't even at these discussions so is it even realistic to to think that a ceasefire deal might actually happen Stephanie I think this was more for domestic uh content uh than it was for actual negotiation details that is I think that this had more to do with the presidential election here in the United States than it had

anything to do with actually coming to an agreement because uh yay senoir and Benjamin Netanyahu are the two that will determine whether or not this agreement goes through and they are very far apart uh Netanyahu insists on having a a continued presence in the Gaza Strip he insists on having control of uh the Rafa Crossing the the net netum Crossing philadelph and senoir and he wants to [Music] and the hostages so I I think that when they say that this is the best possible chance I think the best possible chances for uh the current Administration

as opposed to what's going on there on the ground in the Gaza Strip I also want to ask you there has been growing concerns about the possibility of a larger Regional War especially when we have a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv you know again the the Target unknown but that is you know a strong message uh to Israel do you think that everyone is bracing for a larger Regional War everyone you know we we've heard from a number of different country saying we do not want this to escalate to that point but given the fact

that the recent events have occurred is it inevitable so this supreme leader caini immediately after the death uh there of Hana uh promised to retaliate but he didn't say how they were going to retaliate we don't know if it's going to be similar to the uh April attack where they launch missiles and drones or if this is going to be a Cyber attack or if this is going to be proxies carry conducting this attack we just don't know at this point uh and I believe that the new president of Iran and uh caini uh have

have a real difference of opinion of course the Supreme Leader's opinion is the one that weighs out but nonetheless uh there's a difference as to whether or not they should carry out an attack and if that attack should be immediate so far we're now past two and a half weeks since the the the the bombing there in Teran uh Kelling hania um they promised to do a retaliation Hezbollah has been launching missile barges after missile barges um and so Hezbollah is ready to go I it's Iran that has yet to put together their operation to

see how they're going to conduct this uh retaliation we don't know what the it's going to look like it doesn't have to be a a missile and drone attack you know and you bring up a good point because Israel has been preparing for a number of weeks why hasn't Iran retaliated what what do you think the reasoning behind that is so back in April they took a full week from the time of the um the incident to the time they retaliated so in this particular case it's been over two weeks uh they it may be

due to the difference of opinion between the new president and uh the supreme leader uh it may be due to the fact that they are trying to find the right combination of ways to attack or it very well could be that they're planning to wait out the Allied forces here that are preparing to defend Israel the United States has a lot of air Assets in the area sitting in Cyprus um France and the UK also have uh uh assets uh in the area uh and so every day that goes by without an attack occurs uh

is time that these three countries have assets that are for deployed that are not being utilized and so uh this is a waiting game Iran does not have to attack today or tomorrow they can wait for their retaliation but sooner or later they're going to retaliate in some way we just don't know how and perhaps the element of surprise is perhaps you know their strongest asset at the moment the US did send a missile submarine last week and I and I'm wondering that's obviously a very strong signal often times we don't hear publicly of submarine

going from point A to point B does that change Iran's response in your perspective if at all so here's the thing is that before uh the United States had an aircraft carrier uh Carrier Group in the Eastern Med when that was recalled to the United States it was replaced with a carrier down I south of Yemen um and then that carrier is being replaced by yet another carrier coming into the area there and uh the the additional assets like the uh the submarine are me meant to add additional forces but it's a long distance from

where the aircraft carrier is going to be and uh Israel and so to be able to have the aircrafts move from that air uh aircraft carrier up to defend Israel and get back to the aircraft carrier that's uh 800 miles each Direction and so Cyprus is actually closer Cyprus uh that's why the f-22s and the fa 18s were moved to Cyprus was to be able to provide that air assets that are missing due to the fact that the aircraft car was recall from the Eastern Med um it's a different uh defense plan here it's uh

potentially due to the fact that it's a long way around for an aircraft Carri to get to the Eastern Med we right now have have uh 11 carriers in a 15 carrier uh world so we don't have enough carriers to be able to cover this cover uh what is happening there potentially with uh China with Taiwan and protect all the rest of the sea lions so uh really this is a a situation of aircraft carriers not being where they need to be at the time that they are needed um so the the the long answer

to say that the submarine that is there uh and the uh the knowledge that the aircraft uh that the submarine is there in the area is to try to Boler the defense of that carrier being so distant from uh Israel as we continue to follow the breaking news that explosion in Tel Aviv that killed one person injured another Israeli police say that was in fact a terrorist attack anything else that you're keeping a very close eye on as these cease fire negotiations do continue so the West Bank has been heating up and the West Bank

has been heating up over the last couple of months it continues to be a real problem uh I would not and made even more so by the fact that uh schot and Ben grer have been making moves to try to get additional settlers into the area uh consequently there is a real possibility that the West Bank could become the next Gaza Strip that is that that the that the conflict that is going on in the Gaza Strip may be replaced with uh conflict over in the West Bank so my I've I'm keeping an eye on

the West Bank for additional problems popping up there absolutely Ken as always we do appreciate you taking the time to join us here on live now from Fox thank you