At least one person died and six others were injured in an attack on the seaside promenade in Tel Aviv today. This was reported by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which described the attack as a terrorist act. The attacker, who shot and drove his car into pedestrians, is dead, according to time. According to rescuers, the victims of the attack are foreign tourists.
The Times of Israel, referring to the Magen David Adom health service, wrote that the attack took place at two locations in a well-visited part of the city on the Mediterranean coast. The victim of the attack is a roughly 30-year-old man, according to the Wall server, he was an Italian tourist.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered reinforcements from border police units to be called in in response to the attack, The Times of Israel reported. The move indicates that there are fears of further escalation of the situation in the country. The Prime Minister called on citizens to heed the instructions of the security forces.
According to Tel Aviv police chief Amichai Ešed, the attacker knocked down a number of people in the pedestrian zone. The police are now investigating what his motive was, and are also searching the crime scene for evidence. The entire area was closed, Ešed added. According to him, the incident is over and at the moment there are no fears that other attackers are in the area.
Israeli authorities use the term “terrorist act” for attacks committed by Palestinians, AP reminds. The newspaper time wrote that the suspected attacker is an Israeli Arab from the village of Kafr Qasim in the occupied West Bank.
There has been a very tense atmosphere in Israel in recent days, because Israeli police raided Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque this week. They were followed by rocket attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip and also from Lebanon, to which the army responded with airstrikes. The police are also intensively searching for the perpetrator or perpetrators of the attack in the occupied West Bank, where two Israeli women died and a third was seriously injured after shooting at a car.
