Israeli police at the scene of the “Ram Car” terrorist attack in Tel Aviv on April 7, 2023. OREN ZIV / AFP
Israel is preparing to mobilize additional security forces following two attacks in Tel Aviv and the West Bank that killed at least three people on Friday, April 7. These attacks come amid a surge in violence in the Middle East in recent days.
In Tel Aviv, an Italian tourist was killed on the seafront promenade and seven other people, aged 17 to 74, were injured in an autoram attack. Police said the 45-year-old driver who was shot was from Kafr Qassem, an Arab town in central Israel. Three people are still being treated for minor injuries at Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital, the facility said on Saturday.
Also read: Israel: At least one dead and several injured in an attack in Tel Aviv
After that attack, which took place on Shabbat eve and during Passover week, Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu vowed to make Israel’s “enemies” pay a “heavy price” for “any attack on his country.” He also ordered “Israel Police to mobilize all reserve border police units and to [l’armée] to mobilize additional forces to deal with terrorist attacks,” his office said.
Police said four reserve Border Police battalions would be stationed in city centers as of Sunday, in addition to units already mobilized in the mixed city of Lod and the Jerusalem area.
Two women killed in West Bank
A second attack earlier Friday in the West Bank killed two sisters from the Israeli settlement of Efrat, aged 16 and 20. Her mother is badly injured. The two women, of Israeli and British nationality, were the victims of a Palestinian fire on their vehicle in the northeast of this Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
In the West Bank, the Israeli army said Saturday it came under fire overnight near the Palestinian village of Yabad (north). The soldiers “shot in the direction of the attackers” who were in a vehicle and one person who was hit was “identified,” an army statement said.
Washington and the European Union condemn these attacks
Within the international community, the European Union (EU) condemned the attacks in Israel and the West Bank and the rocket attacks from Lebanon in a press release on Saturday and called for “restraint”. “The EU condemns in the strongest terms these acts of violence,” said the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell. “We urge all parties to exercise maximum restraint,” he added.
In France, the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs “strongly condemned the terrorist attack” and assured Israel of its “solidarity”.
#Israel – Attack in Tel Aviv https://t.co/Yp4olfTOK5
On Washington’s side, the United States “stands by” Israel, a spokesman for American diplomacy asserted. “It is unacceptable to target innocent citizens of any nationality,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said in a statement.
A resurgence of violence
The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas claimed the attack in Tel Aviv was a “natural and legitimate response” to Israeli “aggression” at the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. A statement that is part of a new cycle of violence in the Middle East that has been unfolding for several days.
Test your general knowledge by writing the “world”
Discover
Violence erupted Wednesday on the Esplanade of Mosques, Islam’s third holiest site and Judaism’s holiest site, also the epicenter of tensions in Jerusalem. Israeli forces brutally stormed into Al-Aqsa Mosque in the middle of Ramadan to evict believers, drawing widespread condemnation locally and internationally.
Binyamin Netanyahu claimed that Israeli forces were “forced to act to restore order” in the face of “extremists” barricaded in the mosque, while Hamas, which has waged several wars against Israel, has “unprecedented crimes” denounced.
After the Jerusalem violence, Israel launched attacks on Hamas infrastructure in the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon in response to the launching of dozens of rockets on its territory. The Israeli army claimed that the unclaimed shooting was “Palestinian” and likely Hamas. On the Israeli-Lebanese front, this is an unprecedented escalation since 2006.
Also read: Article reserved for our subscribers Israel: Violent police action at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, in the middle of Ramadan