A Palestinian gunman on a motorcycle opened fire in an Israeli city and killed at least five people, marking the third such attack in less than a week.
Dia Hamarsha, 27, was identified as the suspected gunman killed by police, the Jerusalem Post reported. Authorities believe he was working at a building site in Bnei Brak where the shooting took place.
TWO KILLED AND SEVERAL INJURED IN ISIS ATTACK IN ISRAEL
“Israel is facing a wave of murderous Arab terrorism. My heart goes out to the families who lost their loved ones tonight, and I pray for the well-being of the wounded. The security forces are working,” tweeted Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. “We will fight terror with perseverance, stubbornness, and an iron fist. They will not move us from here. We will win.”
Hamarsha was a resident of Ya’bad, a village near the West Bank city of Jenin, but had been living in Bnei Brak illegally, according to Israeli authorities. In 2015, he served six months in jail for trafficking in arms and working with a terrorist group, per the New York Times. Two other suspects were arrested following the shooting. At least one of them was suspected of assisting the shooter, according to the Jerusalem Post.
The gunman was reportedly armed with an assault rifle and killed four civilians. An officer, identified as 32-year-old Arab Christian Amir Khouri, is credited with fatally shooting the gunman, but he was taken to Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus where he died from the injuries he sustained.
The violence on Tuesday is the third incident Israeli officials have declared as an act of “terrorism” in the past week, claiming 11 Israeli lives in total.
On Sunday, gunmen killed at least two Israelis and injured a few others in an attack for which ISIS claimed credit. Israel’s police force was put on its highest level of alert nationwide Monday in response to Sunday’s attack. Last Tuesday, a man killed four and injured two others during a stabbing incident in the Israeli city of Beersheba. Officials claimed he was an ISIS sympathizer.
פיגוע הירי בבני ברק – סמוך לשעה 20:00 הגיע המחבל לרחוב הרצל ופתח בירי מנשק אוטומטי. מיד לאחר מכן התקבל דיווח על ירי בזירה נוספת. תוך זמן קצר הגיעו לזירה שני שוטרים של מרחב דן, רכובים על אופנוע, חתרו למגע ונטרלו את המחבל. מותם של 4 אזרחים נקבע בזירה ע”י גורמי רפואה. החקירה נמשכת pic.twitter.com/7VFS3YBDer
— משטרת ישראל (@IL_police) March 29, 2022
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issued a rare statement condemning Tuesday’s attack. He also warned the attack should not be used to excuse settler violence against Palestinians.
“The killing of Israeli and Palestinian civilians will only lead to a deterioration of the situation ahead of Ramadan,” he said in a statement, according to the Jerusalem Post. “We are trying to obtain some stability.”
Hamas issued a statement praising the shooting.
“The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) blesses the heroic operation against the Zionist occupation soldiers in the so-called ‘Tel Aviv,’ and stresses that all the heroic operations carried out by our Palestinian people, comes in the context of the legitimate resistance,” the group said.
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Diplomats from the United States, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt held a rare summit in Israel on Monday to show unity against Iran. During the summit, the four Arab nations and the U.S. encouraged Israel to revive peace talks with the Palestinians.
