At least five people were killed on Tuesday March 29 in armed attacks on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel, the emergency services said. “We have, unfortunately, noted the death of five people”Elie Bin, director of Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, told the Kan channel.
In the evening, residents of Bnei Brak, an ultra-Orthodox city on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, then of the neighboring town of Ramat Gan, reported a man driving by and opening fire on passers-by.
The assailant killed
The Israeli police confirmed these attacks and later said that the assailant had been shot dead by the security forces who were patrolling these areas. The attack was not immediately claimed. But local media identified him as Dia Hamarshah, a Palestinian who had spent four years in Israeli prisons and hailed from Yaabad in the occupied West Bank. In Yaabad, witnesses told AFP that men distributed sweets in the evening as a way of “celebration” after the attacks.
The police were deployed in force in Bnei Brak, where Itamar Ben Gvir, one of the leaders of the Israeli far right, moved, according to AFP journalists on the spot.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced that senior security officials would meet in the evening to take stock of the situation. “The security forces are at work. We will fight terrorism with an iron fist. Israel is facing a wave of deadly Arab terrorism »noted Mr. Bennett.
The police placed in “counter-terrorism” mode
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued a rare condemnation of the attacks. ‘The killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians only further aggravates the situation as we all strive to achieve stability’he said in a statement sent by the official Palestinian agency Wafa.
This is the third attack in Israel in a week. The police said they were on high alert and in “counter-terrorism”.
Sunday in Hadera, in the north of Israel, two police officers, including a Franco-Israeli, were killed in a shooting claimed by the jihadist organization of the Islamic State (IS). Israeli police have identified the attackers who were shot as Israeli Arab ISIS operatives.
On March 22, in Beersheva (south), four Israelis – two men and two women – were killed in a stabbing and ramming attack, perpetrated by a man inspired by IS ideology.
The assailant, who died, was a teacher sentenced in 2016 to four years in prison for planning to travel to Syria to fight in IS and for preaching his apology. After the attack in Hadera on Sunday, the Palestinian armed Islamist movements of Hamas and Islamic Jihad hailed a “heroic operation”. Hamas, the ruling group in the Gaza Strip, considered it a “natural and legitimate response to the occupation” and to “crimes” of Israel.
