Paramedics said an Italian was killed and five other tourists were wounded in an alleged attack in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv late on Friday. According to the police, the killer ran over a group of people with his car near the beach promenade. The vehicle overturned. A police officer noticed that the driver was trying to draw a gun. Then he shot him.
An Israeli government statement just minutes after the incident said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had mobilized border police reserves and ordered the military to deploy additional forces.
The ynet news website reported that the perpetrator was an Israeli Arab. Two of the injured were tourists who were taken to Holon’s Wolffson Medical Center with minor injuries, while another four were taken to Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital with moderate injuries, ynet reported. Police said the incident was being investigated. Ambulance sirens could be heard downtown.
Last month, one man was killed and two others were wounded in an attack by a Palestinian in central Tel Aviv. Earlier on Friday, two Anglo-Israeli sisters were killed in a shootout in the West Bank, in which their mother was seriously injured. The Palestinian Islamic organization Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.