Hamas Claims Tel Aviv Terror Attack Injuring Nine
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
TEL AVIV (Worthy News) – Islamist terror group Hamas said Tuesday it was responsible for a car ramming and knife attack in Israel’s coastal city of Tel Aviv that injured at least nine civilians.
Hamas claimed the violence carried out by one of its members in Tel Aviv’s bustling Pinchas Rosen Street was in response to Israel’s military operation in the “occupied West Bank.”
Israeli police said the attacker drove a pickup truck into pedestrians at a bus stop near a shopping center before getting out of the vehicle to stab one of his victims in the neck.
The man, described as a Palestinian man in his 20s from the West Bank city of Hebron, was then shot dead by an armed passerby, a police spokesperson confirmed.
As investigators and emergency workers began clearing the blood-stained road, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem praised the attack, saying that “The heroic attack in Tel Aviv is the first response to the occupation’s crimes.”
He referred to a deadly military operation that Israel says targeted militants in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank territory. Defense sources said late Tuesday that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) were withdrawing from Jenin, ending a two-day operation that local authorities claimed killed 12 Palestinians.
CHILDREN KILLED
Earlier, the United Nations said “at least three children” were among the people killed in the Israeli military operation, but Israel has vehemently denied targeting civilians.
Israel’s government says military operations target Palestinian militants and terrorists planning or carrying out attacks against Israel who often hide among civilian populations.
Tuesday’s car ramming and knife attack was seen as the latest example of violence directed towards the Jewish state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the Tel Aviv incident a “heinous terror attack.”
Besides Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) also praised Tuesday’s attack, saying it was the “response of the resistance to what is happening in Jenin.” However, the PIJ did not claim responsibility for the attack that impacted many people.
Witnesses, including emergency workers, recalled horrific scenes. The chief of staff of Israel’s Medical Emergency Service, Uri Shacham, said the “terror attack was combined, both of the vehicle hitting pedestrians, and then the driver, leaving the car, going outside, and stabbing innocent civilians.”
He said that the “Magen David Adom [emergency service] deployed tens of ambulances, mobile intensive care units, and motorcycles emergency motorcycles to the scene.”
SERIOUS INJURIES
One of the injured, a middle-aged woman, is in serious condition, the Magen David Adom said.
Another paramedic, who wasn’t identified, told Israeli media: “We saw that it was very serious, and near a bus stop, there were five injured people, including a 46-year-old woman lying on the sidewalk while she was conscious and suffering from severe trauma.”
In emotionally charged remarks, Prime Minister Netanyahu warned that “Whoever thinks that such an attack will deter us from continuing our fight against terrorism is mistaken. He is simply unfamiliar with the spirit of the State of Israel, our government, our citizens, and our soldiers.”
Militants and others suggested that Israel’s large-scale military raid “into the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank” had similarities with the second Palestinian uprising, or Intifada, of the early 2000s — that claimed thousands of lives.
However, Israel suggested it was more limited in scope, with Israeli military operations focused on several strongholds of Palestinian militants.
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