Shortly before the rain of Iranian missiles fell on the Jewish state, terror had already reached the heart of Israel: in Jaffa, in the southern Tel Aviv metropolitan area, two men with automatic weapons and knives began attacking passengers in a light rail car, from which they then got out, opening fire on those present on the platform at that moment and stabbing others, even outside the station.
Seven people were killed at the end of the attack, which Hamas claimed this evening. Sixteen others were injured , four of them seriously. The two attackers were killed shortly after.
Horrifying images of the attack captured by security cameras quickly appeared in Israeli media , showing the attackers getting off the subway at the Sderot-Yeroushalaim stop, then opening fire on those on the scene. In one particularly graphic image, one of the attackers shoots a person already on the ground. The two, who police said were shouting "Allah akhbar," then continued stabbing people on nearby Jerusalem Boulevard before being shot dead by a city police officer and an armed bystander, according to local media.
Witnesses told The Jerusalem Post about the terror and chaos of those moments. “We were on the subway when we heard the gunshots outside,” one of them said. “At first we thought it was fireworks, but then we realized it was something much worse. We threw ourselves on the ground. People were screaming. We saw one person bleeding.”
The injured were taken to Wolfson Hospital in Holon and Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. Initially, Maariv writes, it was thought to be a crime-related shooting, as is frequently reported in the area, where a well-known boss resides. But as soon as the nature of the attack was clarified, many officers arrived on the scene, immediately busy checking for the presence of "other threats", as reported in a statement. Shortly after, in fact, the Israeli media reported that the presence of terrorists had been reported in a hotel, the Hasharon Hotel in Herzliya, not far from Tel Aviv.
Someone had raised the alarm after hearing what sounded like gunshots. Security forces later determined that it was a false alarm.
(Unioneonline/vl)
