Five people have been shot dead by a Palestinian gunman in a suburb of the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, in a third deadly attack of its kind in a month.
This happened in Bnei Brak, one of the country’s most populous ultra-Orthodox Jewish areas, and the gunman was shot dead by police, per the account of a paramedic who was present at the scene.
Based on footages from the scene in Bnei Brak, this showed the attacker dressed in black, shooting at people with a rifle on a street and killing the driver of a passing car.
According to the Police, an officer who managed to shoot the gunman is among the dead. The attacker has been identified as a 26-year-old Palestinian from a village near Jenin, in the North of the occupied West Bank, who was previously jailed in Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennet, held an emergency security meeting upon the incident, and his Security Cabinet will convene later today, Wednesday, March 30, 2022.
“Israel is facing a wave of murderous Arab terrorism. The security forces are operating. We will fight terror with perseverance, stubbornness and an iron fist.”
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet
Former Prime Minister and current Opposition Leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, intimated that Israel is “in the midst of a dangerous wave of terrorism that we have not seen for many years… Determined action must be taken to restore peace and security to the citizens of Israel”.
US Condemns Attack
US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has condemned the attack.
“This violence is unacceptable. Israelis, like all people around the world, should be able to live in peace and without fear.”
US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken
Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, also condemned the killings of the Israelis and warned that the attack might lead to escalation at a time when “we are striving for stability”.
However, the Palestinian Militant group, Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, praised the attack, saying: “We express our blessing to the Tel Aviv operation.”
Enhancing Security over Previous Attacks
Israel Security Forces have been on high alert after attacks by Israeli Arabs last Tuesday, March 22, 2022, and Sunday, March 27, 2022, which left six people dead.
Security has also been stepped up across Israel and in the West Bank in the wake of the two previous attacks.
The first was carried out by an Israeli Arab who had planned to join the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria and had served a jail sentence for security crimes. The attacker drove his car into a cyclist, killing him, then stabbed three people to death outside a shopping centre in the southern city of Beersheba.
Five days after Tuesday’s (March 22, 2022) attack, two other Israeli Arabs opened fire at a bus stop in the Northern City of Hadera, killing two 19-year-old Police Officers. The assailants were shot dead by counter-terrorism Officers who happened to be at a restaurant nearby. The Islamic State (IS) group said it was behind the attack, marking the second attack. In addition, all three assailants have been shot dead.
There has been fears of further incidents in the month ahead, when the Muslim festival of Ramadan, the Jewish festival of Passover and the Christian festival of Easter coincide in a rare convergence.
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