UPDATEAt least five people were killed in an attack near the Israeli city of Tel Aviv on Tuesday. This was reported by the Israeli emergency services. It is the third attack in the country in a week. The police shot the gunman. According to local media, he is a Palestinian from the West Bank. The Palestinian president condemns the attack.
The incident took place in Bnei Brak, an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood near Tel Aviv. According to media reports, a man would have fired from a motorcycle at passers-by. Originally there were two fatalities, but that figure was quickly adjusted upwards.
Last week, four people were killed in a knife and car attack in Beersheba in southern Israel. The attacker, a sympathizer of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, was shot dead.
On Sunday, two Israeli agents were shot dead in the northern city of Hadera. The two attackers, Israeli citizens of Arab descent, were killed by officers. ISIS said it was responsible for this as well.
Last year there were riots between Israeli troops and Palestinian protesters in Jerusalem during Ramadan, which led to an 11-day bloody war between Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, and the Israeli army.
Palestinian response
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack on Tuesday. “The murder of Palestinian and Israeli civilians only exacerbates the situation as we all try to create stability, especially in the run-up to the Holy Week of Ramadan and of Christian and Jewish holidays,” the president said in a statement. It is not often that Abbas condemns an attack in Israel.
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