A member of Palestinian Hamas injured three people in Tel Aviv on Thursday as tensions between Israel and Palestine have escalated in recent weeks. Paris condemned a “terrorist attack”.
Three people were injured by bullets in Tel Aviv on Thursday evening in an attack by a member of the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, whose leader was shot dead by a police officer.
The police spokesman had initially announced in the evening that one of the three injured had succumbed to his injuries before returning to his statements.
The shootings took place on Dizengoff Avenue, popular with revelers, in the heart of Tel Aviv – where a Palestinian attack killed three people in April 2022 – while opponents of the government’s judicial reform plan demonstrated elsewhere in the city.
In a statement, Hamas said the attack was carried out by a member of its armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Motaz Khawaja, 23, from the city of Nilin near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
Without claiming “the operation,” Hamas describes Khawaja as a “heroic martyr” and portrays his act as a “personal initiative” and “a natural response to the crimes of the Israeli occupation.”
The “brave deed” of the policeman
Originally Magen David Adom (Mada), the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, said it had “evacuated three people wounded by bullets, one in critical condition, one seriously injured and one slightly injured”. The Ichilov Hospital then announced that the condition of the injured, which had initially been reported as critical, had improved.
In a statement, Homeland Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir praised “the police officer who, in a brave act, eliminated the heinous terrorist and saved many lives.”
According to David Friedman, the attacker was actually shot by several officers.
“I heard shots and saw people running away. I immediately loaded my gun and ran to the scene,” the officer told AFP.
David Friedman then says he chased the fugitive, getting reinforcements from other officers, while the man “kept shooting at us.”
At one point: “I fired three bullets at him, [un collègue] also fired three shots and when he fell down he was shot again to prevent him from getting up,” he added.
Paris sharply condemned
Reached by phone by AFP in Nilin, Khawaja’s father Salah Khawaja said of his son’s act: “I think it is a normal reaction for any young person who sees injustice and murders committed by the Israeli army every day.”
Salah Khawaja clarified that his son is single and a shop manager in Nilin.
During an official visit to Rome, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wished “the injured a speedy recovery” in a short television intervention.
Defense Secretary Yoav Gallant said he gave the order “to act immediately to destroy the terrorist’s home.”
The French Foreign Ministry also reacted in the evening and condemned “the terrorist attack with the utmost severity”.
Tension again
The attack comes amid high tension and a significant increase in violence surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since one of the most right-wing governments in Israel’s history, led by Mr Netanyahu, took office in late December.
Three armed Palestinians, including two Islamic Jihad fighters, were killed Thursday morning during an Israeli military operation in the northern occupied West Bank.
Islamic Jihad and Hamas, another Palestinian Islamist movement, have vowed to avenge her death.
Already on Tuesday, several armed Palestinian groups had exacted revenge for the deaths of six Palestinians (including the perpetrator of a deadly attack on two Israelis in late February and at least three other militants) in an army attack on Israelis in the northern West Bank.
During a brief visit to Tel Aviv on Thursday, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin called for a “de-escalation” as repeated UN calls for calm echoed in the desert.
Since the beginning of the year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of 76 Palestinians (including members of armed groups and civilians, including minors), 12 civilians (including three minors) and one Israeli police officer and one Ukrainian, according to an AFP tally that emerged compiled from official Israeli and Palestinian sources.