Five people have been killed in car bombings in 10 days, including 35-year-old Lia Malka, whose ex-partner was arrested after she died in an explosion on a major Tel Aviv-area highway; 'When will this change?'Israel is facing a growing wave of car bombings, with five people killed or found dead in vehicle explosions in just a week and a half, as criminal violence spills beyond Arab communities and increasingly affects Jewish Israelis as well.Car bombing on Ayalon Highway, Thursday (Video: Fire and Rescue Services, Israel Police)Her former partner was arrested Thursday night, and a court on Friday extended his detention by 10 days. He is suspected of premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit a crime.Malka’s killing came amid a sharp rise in deadly violence across Israel. In Arab communities, 122 people have been killed so far this year, following the killing of two brothers in Yafa an-Naseriyye and a fatal shooting overnight in Tamra. The figure is higher than at the same point last year, which was already the deadliest on record.But police and community leaders say the violence is no longer confined to the Arab sector. In Jewish communities, 12 people have been killed in the past month and a half, including two who were killed last week in a car bombing near the Goral Junction in southern Israel.Car bombing near the Goral Junction in southern Israel, last weekCar bombing on the Coastal Highway near Or Akiva, last month (Video: Magen David Adom)In the recent string of car bombings, two people were killed June 1 in an explosion on Highway 40 in the Negev. On May 26, Daniel Lugasi of Haifa was killed while driving on the Coastal Highway near Or Akiva. Hours earlier, Ovenach Yitzhak Dinko was killed in a car bombing in Afula.Gag orders have been imposed on the investigations into the Ayalon Highway killing and the Goral Junction blast.Malka’s father, Yaakov Malka, said his daughter had filed a police complaint several months ago against her estranged partner over alleged threats. The car she was driving belonged to her brother. Police said neither Malka nor her brother had a criminal record. Her mother previously served in the police and is retired.2 View gallery Lia Malka and her daughter (Photo: from social media)Malka was killed about an hour after posting a social media story showing a photo of her 2-year-old daughter, whom she shared with her former partner.The explosive device, planted under the driver’s seat, left her no chance of survival, police said. Investigators are examining whether it was detonated remotely or by timer. Police said the background to the case was criminal.“Surely, like me, you heard about a car bombing on the Ayalon Highway, then that it was a woman who was killed, and maybe it was a case of mistaken identity. So no,” Malka’s cousin, Tom Nisani, wrote on social media, accusing her former partner.2 View gallery Car bombing in Afula“It seems her husband, her estranged partner, that pathetic excuse for a man, is apparently the one who ordered her murder or did it himself,” he wrote, while noting the case remains under investigation.Nisani said Malka was the mother of a nearly 2-year-old girl and described the killing as part of a broader breakdown in personal security. “She ended her life at 35 in a country where every thug and criminal takes a knife, a gun or attaches an explosive device and murders an innocent woman,” he wrote, adding that the child was not in the car “only by luck.”He said the former partner had threatened Malka and her relatives but remained free. “When will this change?” he wrote. “I actually lost a cousin, forever.”