Jerusalem
Reuters
Israeli security forces shot dead three Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, Israeli police said, drawing threats of revenge by Palestinian militant factions.
Palestinians gather at the scene where Israeli forces targeted a Palestinian car, near Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on 6th August, 2023. PICTURE: Reuters/Raneen Sawafta
PALESTINIAN ATTACK LEAVES ONE ISRAELI DEAD IN TEL AVIV, SHOOTER KILLED
A Tel Aviv municipal patrol officer has died, Israeli officials said on Saturday, after being shot by a Palestinian on a street in central Tel Aviv.
The suspected shooter was then shot dead by another municipal patrol worker, Tel Aviv’s Mayor Ron Huldai told Israel’s public broadcaster.
A statement from the Israeli police said the shooter was a 27 year-old resident of the Palestinian town of Jenin in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian militant group Hamas praised the attack but did not take responsibility.
The shooting came a day after a Palestinian teen was killed in an attack by Israeli civilians on a Palestinian village in the West Bank.
Washington has expressed concern over a growing number of attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinian villages in the West Bank, where violence has worsened since last year with increased Israeli raids amid Palestinian street attacks on Israelis.
Tel Aviv mayor Huldai said the municipal worker had approached the attacker after noticing something suspicious and was then fired at by the shooter. A second municipal worker then killed the shooter.
“We are standing at a very sad incident,” Huldai said. “We are praying for the well-being of the injured.”
In brief statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the actions of the municipal patrol officers.
Despite the attack, tens of thousands protested in Tel Aviv, according to the Israeli public broadcaster, against the governing coalition’s planned judicial overhaul which would see the highest court stripped of much of its powers.
Proponents of the legislation say it restores balance to the branches of government, while those against say it removes checks on government powers.
Last month, the coalition passed legislation that removed the court’s power to strike down government actions based on the action being classified as “unreasonable.”
Violence has worsened in the West Bank since last year with more Israeli raids and Palestinian street attacks on Israelis.
The Israeli police said in a statement that special forces had thwarted a group from the Jenin refugee camp on their way to carry out an attack.
An official statement from the Islamic Jihad militant group claimed one of the dead as its member and said another was a 15-year-old boy. Palestinian medics said the bodies were being held by Israeli forces.
“The enemy, which assassinated three of our Palestinian people, will not escape paying the price of its crimes,” said Hazem Qassem, a spokesperson for the militant group Hamas.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has militants in Gaza and the West Bank, also vowed revenge.
“The enemy will realise that its foolishness and terrorism will be met by a strong response from the resistance,” its spokesperson Tareq Selmaa said in a statement.
The Israeli police said the head of a militant group involved in military action against Israeli security forces and supporting “terrorists” in Gaza had died along with two other squad members.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the security forces.
“We will continue to take action – everywhere and at any moment – against those who seek to attack us,” he said.
Separately, Washington has condemned as terrorism the killing of a Palestinian by suspected Jewish settlers, in sharpened language that appeared to reflect US frustration with the recent surge in violence under Israel’s hard-right government.
