At least five people were killed Tuesday in attacks near the Israeli metropolis of Tel Aviv, the third in a week in Israel, facing a wave of violence that worries the authorities at the approach of large gatherings on the sidelines of the holidays of Ramadan. In the evening, residents of Bnei Brak, an ultra-Orthodox town on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, then of the neighboring town of Ramat Gan, reported a man driving in a car and opening fire on passers-by.
Eleven dead in one week in Israel
“It’s sad and it’s scary, it had never happened in Bnei Brak. It’s not possible that in less than a week we have eleven dead in three different cities,” he told AFP. Shira, a 25-year-old waitress living in this town. Police said they shot the assailant without revealing his identity. But local media identified him as Dia Hamarshah, a Palestinian who had spent four years in Israeli prisons and hailed from Yaabad in the occupied West Bank. In Yaabad, witnesses told AFP that men distributed sweets in the evening as a “celebration” after the attacks.
“Such acts of violence can never be justified and must be condemned by all,” UN chief Antonio Guterres said in a statement from his spokesman. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the violence.