One killed, several injured in Tel Aviv attack
An Italian tourist has been killed and several others injured after a car plowed into a crowd at a popular seaside park in Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial center.
Israeli police said a white car veered off the road toward a pedestrian and bicycle path before flipping over, and they shot the driver after he reached for a weapon.
The exact nature of the attack was not immediately clear, but Israel’s foreign ministry called the incident a “terror attack,” a term Israeli officials use for attacks by Palestinians.
An Israeli security source identified the suspect as an Israeli Arab from Kafr Qassem, near the West Bank border. He had no prior criminal record.
The Israeli rescue service said a 30-year-old man was killed. He was later identified as an Italian tourist. At least five other Italian and British citizens, including a 17-year-old teenager, were injured in the car attack, according to Israeli authorities.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said other Italians were involved in the attack.
“Israeli authorities confirm the death of Italian citizen Alessandro Parini and report the possible injury to other compatriots in the cowardly attack on #TelAviv,” Tajani wrote on Twitter. “I express my strong condemnation of terrorism and my commitment to families.”
The United States also condemned the attack.
“Attacking innocent civilians of any nationality is unconscionable,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Vedant Patel. “The United States stands with the government and people of Israel.”
Security forces mobilized
Israel immediately mobilized police and army reserves after the attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said, amid expectations that the incident would likely reinforce calls for the right-wing Netanyahu to pursue an even tougher approach to the Palestinians.
“I think this increases the pressure on the prime minister many times over,” she said, citing “hardliners” within the Netanyahu government “who have been preaching all along for a much tougher stance when it comes to dealing with Palestinians.” .
“The mayor of Tel Aviv has spoken to the Israeli media and he basically said that all this is happening at this very moment because, in his words, the enemy is taking advantage of the weakness they see in Israeli society right now,” Abdel – added Hamid.
Netanyahu’s far-right government is currently under pressure over its plans to curtail the Supreme Court’s authority and give politicians more power over the selection of judges, sparking massive protests in the streets of Israel.
Earlier on Friday, two women were killed and a third seriously injured in a shooting in the occupied West Bank.
Responsibility for both attacks was not immediately claimed.
The escalation in tensions comes after Israeli forces successively stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem this week, firing stun grenades and attacking Palestinians as they gathered for Ramadan prayers.
Late Thursday evening, Israel launched airstrikes against Palestinian targets in Lebanon and Gaza after rockets were fired from the two locations.
Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told Al Jazeera that the violence on Friday “the result of decades of Israeli subjugation, humiliation and oppression of the Palestinians.”
He pointed to the frustration and anger following the Israeli army’s violent actions inside Al-Aqsa: “They kicked them out, they beat them, they handcuffed them and cuffed their legs and feet and threw them to the ground like sacks of meat.”
“So you will see that the Palestinians will respond by defending themselves by any means necessary.”
Nearly 90 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of the year. During that time, 16 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks on Israelis.