Tension still skyrocketing in Israel: this time it was Tel Aviv that was hit by a terrorist attack that left at least 3 dead and 10 injured, some seriously. The fourth attack in just over two weeks with a total toll - so far - of 14 victims.
According to the first reconstructions of the police, a terrorist opened fire in several points of the symbolic street of the city nightlife, via Dizengoff, only to be able to temporarily disappear. Police launched a manhunt throughout the area, building by building, apartment by apartment, to apprehend the perpetrator who was eventually located and killed after nine hours.
The man, Raed Fathi Hazem, a 29-year-old Palestinian living in the northern West Bank, was in central Jaffa near a mosque. According to reports, he opened fire on his pursuers and was shot in turn. According to the Israeli security services, he organized the attack by himself by entering Israeli territory through an opening in the Security Barrier. He was a member of the "Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades", a formation linked to al-Fatah but also with close ties to Islamic Jihad.
While Prime Minister Naftali Bennett went to the Ministry of Defense - the only department in the city while all the others are in Jerusalem - to follow the story, scenes of jubilation were seen in Gaza: local sources reported that from the minarets of the verses from the Quran were read in mosques and there were numerous gunshots in the air. "We - said Mahmud a-Zahar, one of the historical leaders of Hamas - greet this operation which is a consequence of the continuing aggression in our land and in our Holy Places". An official statement called the Tel Aviv attack "heroic".
Meanwhile, today in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount is the first Friday of prayer of the month of Ramadan: the police have already increased their numbers for fear of clashes. Clashes that have been going on for days with Palestinian demonstrators in various parts of the West Bank.
(Unioneonline / D)