A new armed attack left at least two dead and many injured on Thursday evening April 7 in the center of the Israeli metropolis Tel Aviv. Magen David Adom, Israel’s equivalent of the Red Cross, said 16 injured people had been transferred to local hospitals.
« We have so far received ten wounded but, despite the efforts of the medical staff, two of them succumbed to their injuries », for its part, said the Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, in a brief press release. The motive for the attack was not yet clearly established.
On Thursday evening, witnesses on the spot told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that they heard gunshots and saw scenes of chaos in the center of Tel Aviv where the Israeli police said they were deployed. “It’s an atmosphere of war, soldiers and police everywhere; they searched a restaurant, people are crying and running in all directions”a witness, who works near the scene of the attack, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Fourth attack in three weeks in the country
In a press release, the security forces asked the population not to go out in order to avoid being the target of fire. ‘Police are calling on people to stay home and allow law enforcement to deal with the incident which is still ongoing, in order to locate suspects’she said in a statement.
“The terrorist has fled and we are doing everything we can to track him down”Israeli police spokeswoman Mirit Ben Mayor said, noting that « hundreds » of officers were on the heels of the assailant
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett held talks with the country’s senior security officials at the end of which he decided to » to strenghten « the presence of law enforcement in Tel Aviv.
“It was a very difficult night (…) no matter where this terrorist is hiding, we will find him. And whoever helped him, indirectly or directly, will pay the price. »Mr. Bennett said.
Late Thursday evening, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas » famous « a « heroic operation » and the Islamic Jihad has « greeted » an attack which he considers a « natural response » to « crimes » of Israel, including the recent raid in Jenin.
Multiplication of operations in the occupied West Bank
This is the fourth attack in three weeks in the country, and the second in nine days in Tel Aviv. Last week, a Palestinian from the occupied West Bank opened fire on crowds driving through the Orthodox Jewish town of Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, killing five people, including two Ukrainians and an Israeli Arab policeman. A few days earlier, two police officers, including a young Franco-Israeli, had been killed in a shooting claimed by the Islamic State (IS) organization in Hadera (north of the country).
On March 22, in Beersheva, a large city in the Negev desert (south), four Israelis were killed in a stabbing and car-ramming attack perpetrated by a teacher, sentenced in 2016 to four years in prison for having planned travel to Syria to fight for ISIS.
In the wake of these attacks, the Israeli army, police and internal security services arrested dozens of people suspected of having links with IS in Israel, and increased operations in the occupied West Bank, in particular in Jenin, sector of north of this Palestinian territory where the assailant of the Bnei Brak attack was from.
At least three members of the Islamic Jihad, the second Palestinian armed movement after Hamas, were killed during an exchange of fire in connection with these operations in Jenin.
The attack in central Tel Aviv comes as Israeli police forces prepared to go on high alert for the first major Friday prayers since the start of Ramadan at Jerusalem’s Al-Masjid Esplanade. Last year, clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police on the sidelines of large rallies in East Jerusalem, an area occupied since 1967 by Israel, led to an eleven-day war between Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip, and Israel.