A security guard was fatally injured in the attack by a Palestinian in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on Saturday. The 42-year-old succumbed to his injuries in the hospital, a spokesman for the clinic said in the evening. The father of three daughters prevented a major attack and “saved many lives with his death”.
The assassin had previously died from his injuries in hospital. According to the Israeli police, it was a Palestinian from Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
According to the information, the man was approached by two city government security guards because he seemed suspicious to them. He then opened fire and hit one of the men. The second fired back and disabled the assassin. The 27-year-old carried a suicide note with him, police chief Kobi Schabtai said at the scene of the attack. “He came to be a martyr.”
Loudspeakers in mosques in Jenin announced that the perpetrator was a member of the militant Palestinian organization Islamic Jihad.
Tel Aviv on Saturday evening: Mass protest against the government of Benjamin Netanyahu
(Photo: ILAN ROSENBERG/REUTERS)
Regardless of the attack, tens of thousands demonstrated again in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening against the right-wing religious government and its steps to reorganize the separation of powers in Israel. The organizers addressed about 120 000 participants.
Hamas: Response to violence in the West Bank
A senior member of Hamas, the Palestinian organization that governs the Gaza Strip, called the attack a “heroic act and a natural response to the killing of two young men in the West Bank on Friday.” Israeli settlers shot dead a 19-year-old Palestinian near Ramallah.
The settlers entered the Palestinian village of Burka. They also set fire to two vehicles there, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. Two suspects were arrested, according to police. According to the Ministry of Health, an 18-year-old was killed during a raid by the Israeli army in the Palestinian city of Tulkarem.
The attack in Tel Aviv was the fourth this year in the Mediterranean city. Most recently, a Palestinian attacker drove his car into a crowd there a month ago, injuring several people.
The security situation in Israel and the West Bank has long been tense. Since the beginning of the year, 24 Israelis, one Ukrainian and one Italian have been killed in attacks by Palestinians. During the same period, 170 Palestinians died in Israeli military operations, confrontations or after their own attacks. The majority are armed combatants, but innocent civilians are also among those killed in military operations.
There are also repeated reports of violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, Israeli activists or soldiers. Israel conquered the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967. More than 600,000 Israeli settlers live there today. The Palestinians claim the territories for an independent state of Palestine with the Arab-influenced eastern part of Jerusalem as the capital.