The assailant, part of the Al Qassam Brigades Palestinian terrorist group, was killed after injuring three civilians
Three people were injured in a shooting attack in Tel Aviv on Thursday while the city was the epicenter of anti-government protests, the Israel Police reported early Friday morning, having previously reported by mistake that one of the injured had died. “A 23-year-old Palestinian terrorist shot three innocent civilians in Tel Aviv. The civilians were injured to varying degrees and are receiving medical treatment at the hospital,” a police statement said. A body spokesman confirmed to EFE that this statement was issued as “a correction” to the previous one, which indicated that one of the injured had died.
The attacker “opened fire in front of a cafeteria while running on foot, wounding three civilians. Two police officers and two civilians who were in the area they confronted the terrorist and killed him. Their quick response prevented the shooting attack from injuring more civilians,” Police Commissioner Yakov Shabtai said in a police statement.
The Al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamist Hamas movement, claimed responsibility for the attack and identified the attacker as Moataz Billah al Jawaja, a Palestinian living in the occupied West Bank. “The heroic 23-year-old Al Jawaja, a released prisoner from the city of Ni’lin, west of Ramallah, carried out the shooting attack in the occupied city of ‘Tel Aviv,'” the Brigades said in a statement. Al Qassam, a group considered terrorist by Israel, the United States and the European Union. The militia said the attack was “in response to the daily crimes of the (Israeli) occupation that intensified against Palestinian towns, cities and holy sites, at the gross instigation of the fascist occupying government.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on an official visit to Italy, referred to the attack in a statement. “Tonight there has been another terrorist attack in the heart of Tel Aviv (…) We will continue to build our nation and deepen our roots,” he said. Netanyahu, who has led the most right-wing government in Israel’s history since last December along with his ultra-nationalist and ultra-Orthodox partners, often refers to the extension of Jewish settler settlements in the occupied West Bank when he speaks of “deepening one’s roots.”
On his side, Daoud Shehab, leader of Islamic Jihad in Gaza, said that the attack “coincided with the decision to cancel the evacuation of four settlements in the West Bank, which shows that the palestinians are prepared for a massive outburst of anger against the settlements“.
Meanwhile, an Israeli Army spokesman reported that troops “are operating in the city of Ni’lin at the residence of the terrorist who committed the attack.” israeli authorities often demolish the homes of the attackers’ families Palestinians, a practice widely criticized by international human rights organizations, which consider the practice collective punishment.
protests
The attack, perpetrated on Dizengoff street, in the heart of Tel Aviv, occurred while thousands of people took to the streets of that city to demonstrate against a judicial reform promoted by Netanyahu. The organizers of the protests and the mayor of Tel Aviv will call on the participants to stop the marches and “go home”.
Videos circulating on social networks show that numerous people were sitting outside a cafeteria when they were surprised by the shooting. Then, they show the alleged attacker trying to flee down an alley, amid a hail of shots from uniformed officers and civilians.
Israeli Magen David Adom emergency services took the three injured to Ichilov Hospital: one in critical and unconscious condition, one in serious condition and one in moderate condition. In addition, United Hatzalah paramedics treated “numerous people for emotional shock and psychological stress.”
The US ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, said he was “shocked by the brazen terrorist attack in Tel Aviv, targeting innocent people.” On the other hand, the Israeli Army reported that “a suspicious object was located on a bus in Betar Illit”, a Jewish settlement in the center of the occupied West Bank, for which agents specialized in deactivation of explosives were sent to the place to neutralize the device. .
This same Thursday, Israeli forces killed three Palestinians during an armed clash in a new raid on a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is experiencing a serious escalation of violence with nearly a hundred dead since the beginning of 2023. Deadly attacks by Palestinians and Jewish settlers, as well as ongoing Israeli army raids in the occupied West Bank that lead to clashes with militants, have killed at least 75 Palestinians and of 14 people on the Israeli side, many of them civilians.