Seven people were injured in an attack in the northern Israeli city on Tuesday, July 4, when a motorist deliberately hit them on the sidewalk. The attacker was “neutralized”.
Seven people were injured in an autoram attack in Tel Aviv on Tuesday as the Israeli army continues a major operation in the occupied West Bank. The car crashed into pedestrians in the north of the city, Israel Police said, adding they “neutralized the attacker”.
At the scene, police chief Yaakov Shabtai said the “terrorist” was a West Bank resident who was shot dead by a passerby. “It appears that the suspect was driving a vehicle from south to north, crashed into pedestrians on a shopping street and exited his vehicle to stab civilians with a sharp object,” the police report said.
According to the Israeli security services, quoted by the BBC, the attacker was a 20-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank. Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir praised the “brave citizen” who shot the alleged attacker. The far-right minister said on Twitter that this “neutralization” was a testament to the importance and effectiveness of armed civilians.
For its part, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, hailed a “heroic” attack, speaking of “a first response to the crimes committed against our people in Camp Jenin,” where Israel has been at the fore since Monday it came to the largest military operation in the West Bank in two decades.
On Tuesday, shops remained closed in Jenin, which was overflown by drones, according to AFP, the second day of an operation to mobilize hundreds of Israeli soldiers in that city and the adjacent refugee camp.
The almost deserted streets are littered with rubble and stones, the asphalt has been gutted and the roadway around improvised barricades has been blackened.
The Israeli army said it had attacked “a joint operations center” owned by a local armed group, the Jenin Brigade, a weapons depot, a “monitoring and reconnaissance site” and a hideout for suspected perpetrators of attacks on Israeli targets.
“One hundred and twenty Palestinian suspects” have been arrested since Monday, while “about 300 armed terrorists remain in Jenin, most of them in hiding,” the army said.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, ten Palestinians were killed and 100 injured, 20 of whom are in serious condition.
The city of Jenin and the refugee camp, a stronghold of armed Palestinian groups, have been repeatedly targeted by Israeli operations.
Updated July 4, 2023 at 3:30 p.m. with a more accurate balance sheet.