At least one person has been killed and six wounded in a suspected attack in Tel Aviv, Israel‘s commercial hub. The victims were reported to be foreign tourists.
The exact nature of the attack was not immediately clear, but the foreign ministry referred to it as a “terror attack,” a term Israeli officials use for assaults by Palestinians.
A car rammed into a group of people near a popular seaside park before flipping over, police said. Israel’s rescue service said a 30-year-old man was killed, while four other people were receiving medical treatment for mild to moderate injuries.
Police said they shot the driver of the car. The driver’s condition was uncertain, but social media videos appear to show a body on the ground beside an overturned car while multiple gunshots ring out.
The attack came against the backdrop of heightened tensions after Israeli airstrikes on Palestinian militant targets in both Lebanon and Gaza, as well as a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank that killed two Israelis with British nationality. That followed days of violence and unrest in Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, the compound of the al-Aqsa mosque in the Old City.
The Hamas militant group that rules Gaza praised the attack in Tel Aviv as a response to Israel’s “crimes against al-Aqsa Mosque and worshippers.”
More details soon …
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