Israel: Tel Aviv attacker shot dead by officers

The terrorist who carried out a car-ramming and shooting incident that killed one person and injured six others was shot dead by Tel Aviv police on Friday night, according to The Times of Israel (ToI). An officer at a neighbouring petrol station noticed a ruckus as the terrorist rammed into pedestrians at Charles Clore Park on Tel Aviv’s waterfront, according to police.

“The policeman approached the car together with the Tel Aviv municipality inspectors, and identified that the driver was trying to reach for the weapon he had in his possession,” said police, reported ToI.

“The policeman and the inspectors neutralized the driver and killed him,” police added.

According to Tel Aviv police head Amichai Eshed, the accused attacker in a Tel Aviv ramming drove onto a bicycle lane in a “clear” manner and struck a number of pedestrians. According to authorities, a car drove into a group of people near a popular beachfront park before tipping over.

According to Eshed, police are investigating the attacker’s motives and background, as well as examining the surroundings for evidence. According to ToI, Eshed stated that the area has been closed off.

Eshed cautions against online falsehoods. According to multiple sources, the alleged attacker is from the Israeli village of Kfar Qasem. According to Channel 12, the suspect works in Tel Aviv, according to the Times of Israel. According to the Magen David Adom rescue agency, all of the victims of today’s Tel Aviv terror incident are tourists.

A man in his 30s has been certified dead by doctors. According to previous accounts, the deceased was an Italian traveller, according to ToI. The attack occurred amid heightened tensions following Israeli airstrikes on Palestinian terrorist targets in both Lebanon and Gaza, as well as a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank that killed two Israelis. This came after days of violence and upheaval in Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in the Old City.

Furthermore, two Israeli-British sisters were killed and their mother was seriously injured in a shooting in the northern West Bank on Friday, adding to an already tense atmosphere in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories during a holiday week marred by violence, according to The Washington Post.

According to Oded Revivi, the mayor of Efrat, the sisters, 21 and 16, lived in Efrat, a settlement immediately south of Jerusalem. Revivi reported in a voice message that their mother, who is in her forties, was injured in the attack. They were driving in the Jordan Valley in a car, while the rest of the family was travelling ahead in a separate automobile.

Revivi said the family, who had resided in Efrat for two decades, was on their way to a holiday party in the north when the attack occurred.
The victims’ names have not yet been revealed by police. According to The Washington Post, the UK Foreign Office confirmed Friday that the sisters held British citizenship in addition to Israeli citizenship.

“We are saddened to hear about the deaths of two British-Israeli citizens and the serious injuries sustained by a third individual,” a spokesperson for the office said in a statement. “The UK calls for all parties across the region to de-escalate tensions.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to catch the attackers – saying it’s “just a matter of time… until we settle the score”.

“Our forces are operating in the field in hot pursuit of the terrorists. It is only a matter of time, and not much time, that we will hold them accountable,” he said.

Meanwhile, according to TASS, Russia has called for global discussions to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian problem. At a press conference following talks with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that Moscow is in favour of resuming multilateral negotiations to find a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which would include the Middle East Quartet and the Arab League.

“We have long been advocating to resume the multilateral process for the Israeli-Palestinian settlement, as there is a universally recognized collective mediator, which is the Quartet comprising Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations,” he said.

“It is in this very framework, with the mandatory involvement of the Arab League, that we can, in practice and with hope for some kind of result, search for agreements that should be based on the principles of the two-state solution, as they are formulated in documents,” added Lavrov.

According to TASS, Lavrov stated that the Quartet has not met in a long time because the US has hindered its meetings.