Image: JACK GUEZ (AFP)
The driver had previously driven into a group of pedestrians and then stabbed them with a sharp object, a spokesman said. It was initially unclear whether the attacker was killed. The first arrests have since been made.
The incident happened in front of a shopping mall in the city. According to the police, seven people were injured, three of them seriously. A 46-year-old woman is therefore in mortal danger.
Several people linked to the suspect have been arrested, police chief Kobi Shabtai said at the scene, according to media reports, and called on the population to be more vigilant. Shabtai said the circumstances of the attack are under investigation. A civilian shot the attacker on the spot “and prevented him from continuing his murderous killing spree”.
According to media reports, the alleged attacker in Tel Aviv is a 23-year-old from the West Bank. The man from a village near Hebron entered Israel with a medical permit, several Israeli media reported unanimously on Tuesday. However, according to the suspect’s family, he worked as a blacksmith in a workshop in Tel Aviv. So he wasn’t sick.
The Islamist Hamas, which rules in the Gaza Strip, has described the attack as the “first reaction” to Israel’s military deployment in the West Bank. It was a sign that the “occupation will pay the price for the crimes in Jenin,” said a spokesman for the Palestinian organization on Tuesday – without claiming responsibility for the attack.
Israel began one of the largest military operations in the West Bank in decades on Monday night. After several air strikes, the army moved into the Palestinian city of Jenin with more than a thousand soldiers. There, the military fought hours of firefights with armed residents. At least ten people were killed and 100 others injured.
Source: Nachrichten
