BNEI BRAK – Five people were killed in gun attacks yesterday near the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv, emergency responders said, in the third fatal gun or knife spree in the Jewish state in a week.
Residents of the ultra-orthodox town of Bnei Brak and the neighbouring town of Ramat Gan reported that a man had driven around and opened fire at passers-by, and Israeli police later said security forces killed the assailant.
They did not reveal his identity, but Israeli media reported a Palestinian from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, who had spent four years in the Jewish state’s prisons, was linked to the attacks. They identified him as Diaa Hamarshah.
“We unfortunately have to note that five people have died,” said Eli Bin, head of the Magen David Adom emergency responders, revising upward a death toll of two from shootings in two locations in Bnei Brak.
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, who is based in the West Bank, issued a rare condemnation of the attacks.
“The killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians will only lead to further deterioration of the situation, while we are all striving for stability,” Abbas said in a statement carried by the Wafa news agency.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who heads an ideologically disparate coalition government ranging from Jewish nationalists to Arabs, said the country was “facing a wave of murderous...terrorism’.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned yesterday’s “terrorist attack”, calling the recent spate of violence “unacceptable”.
Police were deployed in large numbers in Bnei Brak late in the evening, said journalists at the scene.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the shootings.
Bennett said he would convene an emergency meeting with top security officials to review the situation. – AFP, March 30, 2022
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