JERUSALEM (AP) – A gunman fired a gun at a motorcycle in central Israel on Tuesday night, systematically shooting a victim that killed at least five people in the third such attack in a week. The killer was killed by the police.
According to Israeli media, the attacker was a Palestinian from the West Bank, the third Arab attacker to launch the attack before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The two previous attacks, carried out by Israeli Arab citizens inspired by the Islamic State extremist group, have raised concerns over further violence.
Israel is “facing a deadly wave of Arab terrorism,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said. He vowed to fight it “with perseverance, stubbornness and an iron hand”. He held an emergency meeting with senior security officials and scheduled a security cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
Israeli authorities have not yet determined whether the attacks were organized or whether the attackers acted individually. The Israeli army has announced that it will deploy additional troops in the West Bank and the police chief has raised the level of national preparedness to the highest level.
An amateur video aired on Israeli television showed a gunman in a black shirt with an assault rifle stopped the moving car and shot the driver. Another appeared to be chasing the cyclist, the rifle stopped as he tried to shoot.
The shooting took place Tuesday at two locations in Bnei Brak, an ultra-Orthodox city east of Tel Aviv. Police said preliminary investigation confirmed the gunman was armed with a gun and fired at passersby before he was shot by officers in the area.
Magen David Adom’s paramedics confirmed that five people were killed. Police said one of the victims was a police officer who came to the scene and implicated the killer.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz tweeted that security forces “will work in every way to restore security on Israeli streets and a sense of security for civilians.”
Israeli media reported that the attacker was a 27-year-old Palestinian from the northwest coast of the city of Jabad. Police did not immediately release information on the suspect.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack, saying that the killing of Israeli or Palestinian civilians “only leads to more destruction and instability, which we are all trying to achieve, especially as we get closer. ” The month of Ramadan and Christian and Jewish holidays ”.
He said the violence “proves that a lasting, complete and just peace is the shortest way to security and stability for the Palestinian and Israeli peoples.”
No Palestinian militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack. The militant Islamist group Hamas praised the “heroic operation” but did not take responsibility.
Israel has taken steps in recent weeks to quell tensions and prevent it from happening again last year, when clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters in Jerusalem turned into an 11-day war between Israel. and Hamas.
But a new wave of violence is greatly complicating this effort.
On Sunday, an armed couple killed two young policemen in a shooting in the central town of Hadera, while last week a lone culprit killed four people in a car accident and knife attack in southern town of Beersheba.
On Tuesday, Israeli security forces raided the homes of at least 12 Arab citizens and arrested two suspects suspected of attacking an Islamic State-linked group in a deadly attack recently.
Hours before the raid, Bennett said the latest attacks inside Israel were a “new situation” that required stronger security measures.
Police said that at night 31 houses were located in northern Israel, in the district, where the armed men who carried out the attack on Hader lived.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for two previous attacks.
All the attacks took place before Ramadan, which begins this weekend, and when Israel hosts a high-level meeting this week between the foreign ministers of the four Arab countries and the United States.
All four Arab countries – Egypt, Morocco, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates – along with the United States have condemned the killings.
Ramadan is expected to begin on Saturday.
Deadly Israeli attacks inside Israel and attacks on Israeli Arab citizens are rare.
The group mainly operates in Iraq and Syria, where it has recently intensified attacks on security forces. It no longer controls any area but acts through sleeping cells. Islamic State has reported attacks on Israeli troops in the past and has branches in Afghanistan and other countries.
Source: Huffpost
