Israeli security forces have launched an investigation into an explosion in northern Israel on Monday that seriously wounded a man driving along the Route 65 highway at the Megiddo Junction.

The man, from the Arab town of Salem, was wounded when an explosive device detonated at around 6 a.m. in an apparent roadside bombing.

A preliminary police investigation found that the bomb was placed behind a barrier on the side of the road.

The 21-year-old victim was taken in serious condition to the Emek Medical Center in Afula.

The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) opened a probe into the incident to determine whether the bombing was an act of terrorism or criminal in nature.

On Thursday, an explosive device that had been planted on a bus failed to detonate in Beitar Illit, a haredi enclave of more than 9,000 families about 12 miles southwest of Jerusalem in the Gush Etzion bloc.

The attempted attack came shortly after three people were wounded in a terrorist shooting on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv.

In November, Israelis Tedsha Tashuma, a 50-year-old father of six, and Canadian-Israeli Aryeh Shechopek, 16, were killed in ISIS-inspired twin bombings in Jerusalem carried out by Palestinian Eslam Froukh.