Seven people were injured in a car ramming and knife attack in northern Tel Aviv on Tuesday afternoon, four of them seriously, police and paramedics said.
According to police, the Palestinian attacker rammed his pickup truck into people on a sidewalk on Pinchas Rosen Street, then got out and stabbed others.
He was shot dead by an armed civilian.
Police spokesman Eli Levy said the incident was a terrorist attack.
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Four of the victims were in serious and moderate to severe condition, according to nearby hospitals Ichilov and Beilinson. Another three were listed in fair and good to fair condition. A person was also taken to Ichilov after suffering from acute anxiety.
Footage from surveillance cameras showed the moment the terrorist struck pedestrians at a bus stop. Moments later, he was seen getting out of the vehicle, charging at bystanders and stabbing them to death.
In another video clip shared on social media, a gunman wearing a motorcycle helmet shot the suspected attacker several times with a pistol and knocked a knife out of his hand.
The civilian who shot the attacker told police: “I parked my motorbike at the bus stop. As I exited the bus stop, I heard a loud noise. I thought it was a traffic accident.”
“The terrorist was chasing me. I shot him and he fell. My legs were shaking. I prayed the bullet would go out or I would be dead,” he said, according to Channel 12.
Witnesses to the attack expressed shock at the violence on the quiet street.
“I was behind the building and heard some gunshots,” a witness named Lee told Channel 12. “It’s a new area. There are restaurants and cafes. There is a large kindergarten two meters from the attack.”
Police and rescue workers at the scene of a car ram and knife attack in north Tel Aviv on June 4, 2023 (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
A worker at a restaurant in the area told Channel 12: “We heard a bang. We thought it was a traffic accident. Then we heard shots and hid.”
“These are scenes that you don’t expect. “We evacuated the victims quickly,” said a paramedic from the Hatzalah rescue service group.
The Shin Bet security service said the terrorist who carried out the attack did not have a permit to enter Israel.
In a statement, the agency named the attacker Abed al-Wahab Khalaila, 20, from the West Bank city of as-Samu in the South Hebron Hills area.
Earlier reports by Hebrew-language media incorrectly named the attacker as Hussein Khalaila, 23, apparently a relative who was permitted to enter Israel for medical supplies.
The Shin Bet said the attacker, Abed al-Wahab Khalaila, had no previous security offences.
The Hamas terror group said Khalaila was a member but declined to take responsibility for the attack.
The attack came as the Israeli military was conducting a major operation in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
The IDF operation comes after a series of Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israelis since the beginning of this year have killed 24 people. Many of the attackers came from Jenin and the surrounding area.
On Monday, a Palestinian teenager stabbed and slightly injured an Israeli in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bnei Berak in another suspected terrorist attack.