© Jack Guez
Israeli security forces at the scene of an attack that killed at least five people in Bnei Brak on March 29, 2022.
Israel once once more the scene of deadly violence. At least five people were killed and several injured on Tuesday evening in armed attacks on the outskirts of the Israeli metropolis Tel Aviv, emergency workers said. This is the third event of this kind in a week in the country.
“We had five wounded in two different places in Bnei Brak (ultra-Orthodox town on the outskirts of Tel Aviv), two of whom died”Elie Bin, director of Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, told the Kan channel before raising the death toll to five. Rescuers and witnesses have reported injuries caused by another attack in the nearby town of Ramat Gan. In the evening, residents of Bnei Brak, an ultra-Orthodox town on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, then of the neighboring town of Ramat Gan say they saw a man driving around and opening fire on passers-by.
According to the israeli newspaper Haaretz, the assailant who was shot at the scene of the attack is a 26-year-old Palestinian from Ya’bad, near Jenin in the West Bank. The police are, however, still looking for other suspects. Ramat Gan Mayor Carmel Shama-Hacohen called on residents of the city to stay sheltered and only leave their homes when absolutely necessary.
To provide an update on the attack, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will convene a meeting later in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday with the chief of police, the minister of public security, the chief of staff of the IDF, the head of the Shin Bet security service and other officials.
Sunday in Hadera, northern Israel, two Israeli policemen were killed in a shootout claimed by the jihadist organization 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 knife and ramming attack perpetrated by a man inspired by the ideology of the IS group. The assailant was a teacher sentenced in 2016 to four years in prison for having planned to travel to Syria to fight within the IS and for sermons praising the Islamist terrorist movement.
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.
More information to come…
