At least three people were killed Thursday, May 5, during an attack in Elad, a city located about twenty kilometers from Tel Aviv, in the east, when the country celebrates the 74and anniversary of the creation of the state. Four people were also reportedly injured, two of whom are in critical condition, according to Israeli rescue services Magen David Adom.
According to Israeli media, it is a terrorist attack, committed by two men. Speaking on Keshet 12, the city’s mayor asked the population to confine themselves during the operation of the security forces.
The police, who are conducting a manhunt after the attack, gave no details on the identity of the assailants and the precise circumstances in which it took place. “We are looking for one or two terrorists”said Avi Bitton, police chief in central Israel.
« The scene of the attack was complex »according to Israeli rescuer Alon Rizkan of the MDA, who says he saw a 40-year-old man dead near a roundabout, then another unconscious man in an adjacent park, who was eventually pronounced dead, and another at his side who succumbed to his injuries.
‘It was a horrific attack, targeting innocent men and women, especially heinous as Israel celebrated its Independence Day’said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, assuring that the United States stood « firmly » alongside their Israeli allies.
Closure of the Gaza Strip
This sixth anti-Israeli attack since March 22 occurred in Elad, a city of around 50,000 inhabitants, including many ultra-Orthodox Jews. It brings to 18 the number of people killed in anti-Israeli attacks during this period, some perpetrated by Israeli Arabs and others by Palestinians. In the wake of the first attacks, Israeli forces carried out a series of operations in the occupied West Bank. In total, at least 26 Palestinians, including assailants, have been killed since the start of this wave of anti-Israeli attacks.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz announced a closure, until Sunday, of the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank in order to « to prevent the escape of terrorists » to this Palestinian territory.
The Palestinian armed Islamist movements of Hamas and Islamic Jihad have » popular « an attack « heroic »calling it » reaction « to recent tensions in Jerusalem, without however claiming it.
» This operation [à Elad] testifies to the anger of our people at the attacks of the occupation against the holy places. The storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque cannot go unpunished”said Hazem Qassem, spokesman for Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian enclave of 2.3 million people.
“The desecration by the occupying forces [nom donné à la police et l’armée israélienne par des Palestiniens] and settler gangs in Al-Aqsa crossed all red lines”added Muhammad Hamid Abu Al-Hassan, of the political office of the Islamic Jihad.
New clashes on the esplanade of the Mosques
At the same time, clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians left nearly 300 injured on the esplanade of the Mosques, in the Palestinian part of Jerusalem, occupied since 1967 by Israel. After a break of several days linked to the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, Jewish worshipers went to the esplanade on Thursday, the day of the 74and anniversary, according to the Hebrew calendar, of the creation of the State of Israel which coincided with the end of the Muslim celebrations of Eid al-Fitr.
Under an unspoken status quo, non-Muslims can visit the esplanade – Islam’s third holiest site and Judaism’s holiest place under its name of “Temple Mount” – but without praying there. However, a growing number of Jews are going there and the fact that some of them pray there surreptitiously raises fears that this status quo will be challenged among many Muslims. Over the past few weeks, the Israeli government has repeatedly said it does not want to go back on it.
In the morning, clashes broke out between Israeli police and Palestinians on the esplanade of the Mosques in East Jerusalem, where Jewish worshipers have started to go again, according to witnesses and the police.