Eight people have been injured after a Palestinian man rammed his car into a crowded bus stop and went on a stabbing frenzy in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, Israeli authorities said.
The 20-year-old assailant, who is a so-called member of the Hamas militant group, was eventually shot dead by an armed civilian after unleashing the bloody terror, police said.
Surveillance video circulating online showed a pickup truck mounting the sidewalk and bicycle lane outside a mall at high speed, striking at least two people.
The knife-wielding attacker then jumped out the window and stabbed a café-goer before continuing his stabbing rampage.
The Hamas militant group immediately claimed the assailant as a member, saying he struck in retaliation for the ongoing military raid in the West Bank town of Jenin, during which 10 Palestinians were killed during clashes with local gunmen.
A Palestinian man careened his car into pedestrians in Tel Aviv, wounding at least four people, in an attack as a response to Israel’s ongoing military operation. Ilia Yefimovich / DPA Picture Alliance / Avalon
The attack came as Israeli troops pressed ahead with their hunt for Palestinian militants and weapons in a West Bank refugee camp. Ilia Yefimovich / DPA Picture Alliance / Avalon“This heroic operation is an act of self-defense in the face of the ongoing Zionist massacre in Jenin, the crimes of displacement, killing and destruction executed by occupation forces,” Hamas said in a statement.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the group dispatched the attacker or if he acted on his own.
Police Chief Kobi Shabtai said several people connected to the attacker had been arrested in the aftermath, but didn’t elaborate further.
Israeli paramedics said at least four people were wounded when a car careened into pedestrians on a sidewalk. AP
Israeli emergency personnel at the scene of the attack in Tel Aviv, Israel July 4, 2023. REUTERSKhaled Al-Batsh, a senior official from the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad movement also praised the attack, saying it was “an initial and natural response of the resistance towards what is happening in Jenin.”
Israel’s Shin Bet security agency said the attacker was a Palestinian from the occupied West Bank.
He entered the country without a permit and had no record of any security offenses, the agency said.
Police spokesman Eli Levi said that the incident was a deliberate attack and that a civilian shot and killed the driver at the scene. AP
Israeli media identified the attacker as Hasin Halila, 23, a Palestinian man from a village near the West Bank city of Hebron. REUTERSThe attack came as Israeli troops pressed ahead with their raid on a refugee camp in Jenin in search for Palestinian militants and weapons.
The large-scale raid, which kicked off on Monday, is one of the most intense military operations in the West Bank in nearly two decades.
During Tuesday’s operations, the military said it had seized weapons and explosives and demolished tunnels beneath a mosque.
Israeli Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai arrived at the site of the reported car-ramming attack in Tel Aviv. AFP via Getty Images
The Hamas militant group praised the attack as “heroic and revenge for the military operation in Jenin.” AFP via Getty Images
Israeli police were seen walking through the scene of the attack. REUTERSThe Palestinian Health Ministry said the two-day death toll had risen to 10, while the Israeli military claimed all were militants.
Jenin Mayor Nidal Al-Obeidi said that around 4,000 Palestinians had been forced to flee the refugee camp in recent days amid the ongoing military operation.
More than 140 Palestinians have been killed this year in the West Bank in what has become more than a yearlong spike in violence. Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis have killed at least 26 people.
