Israel: Tel Aviv attacker shot dead by officers

Tel Aviv [Israel], April 8 (ANI): Tel Aviv Police on Friday night shot dead the terrorist who carried out a car-ramming and shooting attack that resulted in the death of one person while injuring six others, reported The Times of Israel (ToI).

According to police, an officer at a nearby gas station heard a commotion after the terrorist rammed into people at Charles Clore Park on the Tel Aviv waterfront.
“The policeman approached the car together with the Tel Aviv municipality inspectors, and identified that the driver was trying to reach for the weapon he had in his possession,” said police, reported ToI.

“The policeman and the inspectors neutralized the driver and killed him,” police added.

Tel Aviv police chief Amichai Eshed says the suspected attacker in a Tel Aviv ramming drove onto a bicycle lane in a “clear” manner and hit a number of people in the pedestrian area.

A car rammed into a group of people near a popular seaside park before flipping over, police said.

Police are looking into the attacker’s motives and background, and are searching the area for evidence, Eshed says in a statement to the media.

Eshed said that the area has been closed off, reported ToI.

Eshed warns against misinformation circulating online. Multiple reports say the suspected attacker was from the Israeli town of Kfar Qasem. Channel 12 reports the suspect worked in Tel Aviv, reported ToI.

The Magen David Adom emergency service says all of the victims of today’s terror attack in Tel Aviv are tourists.

Medics have declared the death of a man around the age of 30. Earlier reports said the fatality was an Italian visitor, reported ToI.

The attack came against the backdrop of heightened tensions after Israeli airstrikes on Palestinian terrorist targets in both Lebanon and Gaza, as well as a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank that killed two Israelis. That followed days of violence and unrest in Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, the compound of the Al-Aqsa mosque in the Old City.

Moreover, in a shooting in the northern West Bank on Friday killed two Israeli-British sisters and seriously injured their mother, adding to an already tense atmosphere in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories during a holiday week marred by violence, reported The Washington Post.

The sisters, 21 and 16, lived in Efrat, a settlement just south of Jerusalem, according to a statement from Oded Revivi, the mayor of Efrat. Their mother, who is in her 40s, was injured in the attack, Revivi said in a voice message. They were driving in a car in the Jordan Valley, while the rest of the family drove ahead in a separate car.

The family, which has lived in Efrat for two decades, was on its way to a holiday gathering in the north when the attack occurred, Revivi said.

Police have not yet released the names of the victims. The UK Foreign Office confirmed Friday the sisters held British citizenship, in addition to Israeli, reported The Washington Post.

“We are saddened to hear about the deaths of two British-Israeli citizens and the serious injuries sustained by a third individual,” a spokesperson for the office said in a statement. “The UK calls for all parties across the region to de-escalate tensions.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to catch the attackers – saying it’s “just a matter of time… until we settle the score”.

“Our forces are operating in the field in hot pursuit of the terrorists. It is only a matter of time, and not much time, that we will hold them accountable,” he said.

Meanwhile, Russia called for multilateral talks to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, reported TASS.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a press conference after talks with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu on Friday said that Moscow is in favor of resuming multilateral negotiations to find a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which would involve the Quartet on the Middle East and the Arab League.

“We have long been advocating to resume the multilateral process for the Israeli-Palestinian settlement, as there is a universally recognized collective mediator, which is the Quartet comprising Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations,” he said.

“It is in this very framework, with the mandatory involvement of the Arab League, that we can, in practice and with hope for some kind of result, search for agreements that should be based on the principles of the two-state solution, as they are formulated in documents,” added Lavrov.

Lavrov pointed out that the Quartet has not been convened for some time and its meetings are being blocked by the United States, reported TASS. (ANI)