- Secretary Blinken’s Travel to Tel Aviv, Amman, Tokyo, Seoul, and New Delhi – United States Department of State Department of State
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- Blinken heads to Israel, Jordan as Gaza war and criticism of it intensifies The Associated Press
- U.S.’ Antony Blinken and Llyod Austin to travel to India for 2+2 Ministerial dialogue | WION WION
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Israeli troops begin leaving Jenin camp, hours after Palestinian attacker wounds 8 in Tel Aviv – Boston Herald
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‘A plan to change Israel’s DNA’: 80,000 rally in Tel Aviv against judicial overhaul
Tens of thousands of demonstrators braved rainy weather Saturday night to gather at Tel Aviv’s Habima Square for protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government and its plans for sweeping changes to Israel’s justice system.
Police estimated some 80 thousand people rallied in the square and surrounding streets, with many traveling to Tel Aviv from around the country on hired buses. Demonstrations were also held in Jerusalem and Haifa.
Despite police warnings of possible violence and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s call for police to crack down on any unrest, the demonstrations ended largely peacefully, with only a few sporadic clashes between protesters and cops.
Roads near Habima Square were shuttered throughout the rally, as police deployed in force in the city center to maintain order.
Among those in attendance were former opposition leader Tzipi Livni, former prime minister Ehud Barak, National Unity party leader and former defense minister Benny Gantz, former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot (National Unity) and Labor party leader Merav Michaeli.
The demonstration marked the second week that opponents of Netanyahu’s government took to the streets, protesting Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s proposals to shake up the judiciary by severely curbing the High Court of Justice’s judicial review powers and cementing political control over the appointment of judges.
Thousands of people protest against the Israeli government at Habima Square in Tel Aviv, on January 14, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Taking the stage in Tel Aviv, Livni vowed that “nobody will be above the law, not even the prime minister… Together we will protect the state, because it is for all of us.”
Addressing lawmakers advancing the controversial judicial overhaul, she said “history will not forget.”
The chair of the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, Eliad Shraga, told the crowd: “Always remember that we prefer the cold and the rain of liberal democracy than the heat and hell of a fascist dictatorship.”
Shraga called on President Isaac Herzog to declare Netanyahu as unfit to serve as prime minister. He said the new government aims to “change the DNA of the State of Israel,” transforming it from a secular state to a religious fundamentalist state that harms the rights of women and the LGBTQ community.
People protest against the Israeli government in Tel Aviv, on January 14, 2023 (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
Former Supreme Court justice Ayala Procaccia said “something is deeply broken in our social pact, in the basic framework of rules agreed upon throughout the country’s history.
“We are at the start of a new era in which democracy has a new definition: not a value-based democracy but a fractured democracy leaning entirely on ‘the will of the voter,’ which no longer gives any weight to other democratic principles.”
Procaccia said the public “will not accept…the destruction of the values that are the basis of our system… We are at a fateful moment of decision for the moral future of Israel.”
Israeli protesters attend a rally against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government in the coastal city of Tel Aviv on January 14, 2023 (AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)
With the rally ongoing, several hundred protesters began marching down Ibn Gabirol Street, escorted by police down the road, which was blocked for vehicular traffic.
“No democracy without the High Court,” the marchers chanted with drummers. Motorists on nearby roads cheered and honked in support of the march, despite being caught in a jam.
Police blocked the entrance to the Ayalon Highway, preventing protesters from entering and disrupting traffic there.
Later in the evening, police scuffled with some anti-government protesters, as around 200 attempted to enter the highway and block it. The crowd initially tried to enter from a junction, and then via the underground parking lot of the Azrieli mall. Police said officers managed to push the crowd back.
Protesters clash with police after attending a demonstration against the Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, in Tel Aviv, on January 14, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
In Haifa, hundreds of people gathered at the Horev Center in Haifa, while thousands protested outside the President’s Residence in the capital, bundled in winter coats and hats, waving Israeli flags and placards and calling for the president, Isaac Herzog, to emerge.
Several hundred of the Jerusalem protestors marched toward Azza Road, where Netanyahu’s temporary residence is located. Police placed roadblocks to prevent crowds from nearing the premier’s home.
The crowd, including families with young children, kippah wearers, and older residents, shouted, “My country has three branches of government, three!”
עזה פינת ארלוזורוב, הפגנה מהרגועות שראינו בואכה ימי בלפור pic.twitter.com/xXM1B58X2r
— Haim Goldich | חיים גולדיטש (@HGoldich) January 14, 2023
A police officer was also seen assaulting a protester during the demonstration outside the President’s Residence. Israel Police chief Kobi Shabtai’s office told the Kan public broadcaster that the incident was being investigated.
It was unclear what preceded the violence.
ההפגנה נגד הממשלה: שוטר תועד מכה מפגין בפניו במחאה מול בית הנשיא בירושלים | לידיעה המלאה >>> https://t.co/C5C7RLOAfw@SuleimanMas1
(צילום: פרי ג׳רוזלם) pic.twitter.com/aO3xQ7XLwu— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) January 14, 2023
Ahead of the Tel Aviv rally, the chief of police’s Tel Aviv District, Ami Eshed, said that there was no change in policy.
“Our main goal is that everyone who comes to the demonstration will be able to arrive in an orderly manner and leave here in an orderly and safe manner,” Eshed was quoted by the Ynet news site as saying during a tour of the square prior to the event’s start.
“Our only goal is to deal with people who are committing vandalism or violence. We don’t deal with things that are trivial,” he told officers.
According to the Haaretz daily, police placed security around the home of Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana (Likud), who lives near Habima Square.
Israelis protest against Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, in Tel Aviv, on January 14, 2023. (Jack Guez/AFP)
Sheltering from the rain under a tree, Lorna from Tel Aviv said she came to the protest to try to ensure her grandchildren’s future.
“I feel like we are living in the beginnings of a dystopian state,” she said. “I am seeing the end of democracy and I feel personally threatened.”
Reut from Tel Aviv came to the protest as part of a three-generation delegation from her family. “We are starting to not recognize our own country,” she said. “And that’s an understatement.”
Hadas traveled from Ganei Tikva. “We don’t like what’s happening here,” she said. “I don’t know if [protesting] will make a difference. But if we don’t do something then for sure nothing will change,” she added.
Saturday’s rallies were being backed by top groups that led protests against Netanyahu in 2020: Ein Matzav (No Way), Crime Minister and the Black Flags. They have also been endorsed by other organizations, including the Association for LGBTQ Equality in Israel, the Movement for Quality Government and the Kibbutz Movement.
“Bougie, wake up, the house is burning,” the demonstrators chanted, referring to the president by his nickname.“Bougie, Bougie, wake up, the public is worth more.”
Israelis protest against Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, outside the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, on January 14, 2023. (Jessica Steinberg/Times of Israel)
Ahead of the rallies, ex-police chief Moshe Karadi said law enforcement had information that right-wing activists intended to plant agitators at the protests.
“Elements from the other side sometimes plant rioters in demonstrations for the sake of provocation and there is information on this matter in this demonstration as well,” Kan news cited Karadi as saying at a conference in Beersheba.
He downplayed concerns of potential unrest among the demonstrators, saying it was “fake news from certain elements.”
Despite the warnings that the protest may attract right-wing agitators, there were no reports of violence.
Two teens wearing scarves marking them out as fans of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team, known for its right-wing fans, attempted to provoke a reaction in Tel Aviv.
“Only Ben Gvir,” one teen repeatedly shouted, referring to National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party. “Stupid boy,” responded one older lady as the rest of the crowd ignored him.
Israelis protest against Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, in Tel Aviv, on January 14, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
On Friday, National Unity party leader Benny Gantz had urged Israelis from across the political spectrum to attend the Tel Aviv demonstration.
“I call on the entire Israeli public, from left to right, to come to protest for safeguarding Israeli democracy. Making your voice heard at this time is a civic duty of the highest importance and not ‘civil disobedience’ as those trying to suppress the demonstration claim,” said Gantz, who previously served as defense minister and IDF chief.
Netanyahu, meanwhile, brushed off criticism of the proposed judicial changes a day after Supreme Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut warned their enactment would deal a “fatal blow” to the country’s democratic character.
Thousands of people protest against the Israeli government at Habima Square in Tel Aviv, on January 14, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
“We discussed this before the elections and we received a clear mandate from the public for this,” Netanyahu asserted in a Friday video. “I suggest everyone calm down and enter into a substantive discussion.”
“When they say that the smallest reform is the destruction of democracy, this is not only a false claim, it also does not allow for the possibility to reach understandings… through substantive dialogue in the Knesset,” Netanyahu added.
Critics of the plans, which include top current and former judicial and legal officials as well as Netanyahu’s political rivals, say Levin’s reforms would put basic civil and minority rights at risk by severely limiting the top court’s authority to strike down laws and government decisions. Proponents of the changes argue that the courts have assumed excessive powers and issued rulings that defy the will of the voters.
Along with Gantz, a number of other politicians were expected to attend the demonstration in Tel Aviv. Opposition leader Yair Lapid said Thursday that he would not join the protest after being told that he and Gantz would not be allowed to address the crowd.
Israelis protest against Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, in Tel Aviv, on January 14, 2023. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai said Friday that he would be in attendance and called on anyone “who cares about the State of Israel and its democratic character” to be there.
“If there is a water cannon, I will stand in front of it,” Huldai told Channel 12 news, amid calls by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir for police to take a harder line against protesters. “To protest is a cornerstone of democracy,” the mayor added.
According to Kan and the Ynet news site, police have barred protesters from marching or blocking roads as conditions for authorizing the rally in Tel Aviv. Several marches were held during last week’s protest, during which some demonstrators also briefly blocked a major highway.
Channel 12 news reported that some protesters were planning to march toward the Azrieli shopping center despite the police ban, and to block roads — which could lead to conflict with officers.
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Sinkhole opens under swimming pool in Israel, video shows, killing Klil Kimhi of Tel Aviv
Two men were shown being dragged into the sinkhole as partygoers watched in horror and shock while dance music played poolside. While one of the men managed to climb out after falling down, the other is seen on video submerged underneath the water and attempting to escape the vortex. He then disappeared into the sinkhole.
אירוע חריג בכרמי יוסף: בולען נפער בבריכה, אדם אחד נעדר.
פרטים נוספים בהמשך >>
(שימוש על פי סעיף 27א’ לזכויות יוצרים) pic.twitter.com/JtWn91G3Sc— ישראל היום (@IsraelHayomHeb) July 21, 2022
After a four-hour search, first-responders were able to find the man at the bottom of the sinkhole — Klil Kimhi, 32, of Tel Aviv — who was pronounced dead, according to the Times of Israel. Authorities have not revealed Kimhi’s cause of death.
The couple who owns the property was arrested on suspicion of negligent manslaughter. Police say the couple, identified by Israeli media as Natan and Rachel Meller, did not apply for a permit before building the pool. At a Friday hearing, Sgt. Rami Desta accused the couple of playing “a very large contribution to this tragic outcome.”
“They could have prevented this outcome if they had gotten a permit,” said Desta, according to the Israeli news site Ynet.
The Mellers were released Friday morning on house arrest to their daughter’s house in Petah Tikva.
Zion Amir, the couple’s attorney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. He defended his clients as “good people” during Friday’s hearing and outlined that they could not have anticipated a sinkhole to open under their swimming pool.
“This is a very unusual event,” he said, according to Ynet.
Sinkholes are areas of ground that lack natural external surface drainage, according to the United States Geological Survey. Spaces and caverns can develop underground as rock below the land surfaces, such as limestone, carbonate rock or salt beds, dissolve. One of the reasons sinkholes can be so dramatic is because a sudden collapse of the land surface can occur at any time, according to USGS.
In the United States, the most damage from sinkholes tends to occur in states such as Florida, Texas, Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, the USGS says. Just this week, video captured a New York City van falling into a sinkhole in the Bronx.
Sinkholes are also an issue in Israel. Ittai Gavrieli, a senior researcher with the Israel Geological Institute told, Agence France-Presse last year that there were thousands of sinkholes in and around Israel, including around the shores of the Dead Sea.
Roughly 50 people were at the house party Thursday, according to the Times of Israel. One guest told Keshet 12 that everything happened so fast, and that it wasn’t immediately clear what was unfolding before them.
“The water level suddenly started receding and a hole opened up, creating a vortex that swept two people inside,” she said.
Aviv Bublil, the lifeguard who worked at the pool party, recounted to Ynet how “the ground just dropped.”
“I saw two people … two people were missing,” Bublil said.
The 34-year-old man who climbed out of the sinkhole suffered minor injuries to his head and legs, Magen David Adom paramedic Uri Damari told the Jerusalem Post.
Photos shared by authorities show how the giant sinkhole ripped through the middle of the pool.
On social media, friends are flooding Kimhi’s Facebook page with remembrances.
“May his memory be a blessing,” the Israel Hayom newspaper wrote on its Facebook account.
On Friday, Amir, the attorney for the homeowners with the pool, emphasized at the hearing that the fatal sinkhole incident was “a terrible tragedy” that was “no less unusual than a lightning strike.”
“Such a thing happens once in a hundred years,” Amir said, according to Ynet. “And it unfortunately happened.”
In Israel for Tel Aviv Pride, rapper Iggy Azalea asks: ‘BDS? What’s that?’
Australian rapper Iggy Azalea performed at the Tel Aviv Pride Festival’s “Love Stage” in Park HaYarkon on Friday afternoon, in her first trip to Israel.
The performer, who reached global prominence following the 2014 release of hit song “Fancy,” moved to the United States from Australia in her teenage years to pursue her music career. She released her third album, The End of an Era, in August 2021, which she said is her last album before a hiatus from the music industry.
“Rapyd,” a UK-based fintech company with an office in Israel, sponsored her arrival and concert, along with those of American DJ David Morales and Berlin DJ Boris Berghain.
The concert marks Azalea’s first visit to Israel, who noted that she was “surprised” when asked to perform.
“BDS? What is that?” she responded when asked about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement that pressures performers not to perform in Israel, in an interview with Channel 12.
“Because I don’t know much, I’m happy to come and see things for myself,” she added.
Posted by Iggy Azalea United on Friday, June 10, 2022
Azalea noted that she did not have much international experience. Of a concert in Turkey, she said: “I was really nervous that nobody would know the words to my songs. In the end, it was one of the best shows I have ever done in my life and everyone knew the lyrics. I love the culture of Turkey… and I hope my experience in Israel will be good or even better.”
Marchers at the annual Pride Parade in Tel Aviv, on June 10, 2022. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
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2 dead, several other people shot in terror attack in Tel Aviv, Israel
The suspect was killed in a shootout with Israeli security forces early Friday.
Two people were shot dead and several others were injured in a terror attack in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Thursday night, according to authorities.
At least 9 people were shot in the attack, with victims being taken to Ichilov, Sheba Tel Hashomer and Wolfson hospitals, according to Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency medical service. Two men, “approximately 30 years old,” were pronounced dead at Ichilov Hospital.
Three people in serious condition — a 20-year-old man, 28-year-old woman and 38-year-old man — were being treated for serious injuries, according to the medical service. Four others were being treated for mild injuries.
Several other people at the scene were being treated for “stress symptoms,” according to Magen David Adom.
Israeli security forces tracked down and killed the alleged assailant in a shootout early Friday near a mosque in Jaffa, an Arab neighborhood in southern Tel Aviv, according to statements from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Israel’s internal security service, Shin Bet. The suspect was identified by Shin Bet as a 29-year-old Palestinian man from Jenin, in the occupied West Ban.
Israeli officials said “several” shootings took place at Dizengoff Street, Gordon Street and surrounding areas in Tel Aviv. Dizengoff Street is a major street that runs through Tel Aviv and has many shops, bars and restaurants and would have been bustling with activity on a Thursday night.
“It has been a very difficult night,” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett wrote on Twitter. “I send my condolences to the families of those who were murdered, and I pray for the complete recovery of the wounded. Security forces are in pursuit of the terrorist who carried out the murderous rampage tonight in Tel Aviv. Wherever the terrorist is – we will get to him. And everyone who helped him indirectly or directly — will pay a price.”
The deadly shooting on Thursday night was one of several recent terror attacks in Israel. There were three fatal terror attacks at the end of March. On March 30, five people were shot to death in Bnei Brak, east of Tel Aviv, by a man on a motorcycle who was later killed by police. One of the victims was a police officer, according to Magen David Adom.
Two days earlier, on March 28, two police officers were shot to death and four others were wounded in an attack. Then, a week prior, four people were killed in a stabbing attack in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba. The suspect was shot dead.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks.
“Americans are, once again, grieving with the Israeli people in the wake of another deadly terrorist attack, which took the lives of two innocent victims and wounded many more in Tel Aviv,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. “Our hearts go out to the families and other loved ones of those killed, and we wish a speedy recovery to the injured. We are closely following developments and will continue to be in regular contact with our Israeli partners, with whom we stand resolutely in the face of senseless terrorism and violence.”
“Horrified to see another cowardly terror attack on innocent civilians, this time in Tel Aviv,” U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides wrote on Twitter. “Praying for peace, and sending condolences to the victims and their families. This has to stop!”
ABC News’ Nasser Atta, Bruno Nota, Christine Theodorou and Jason Volack contributed to this report.
Tel Aviv shooting: Two killed, many injured in Tel Aviv shooting
The suspected gunman was killed by security forces following a manhunt, according to a statement from Israel’s General Security Service on Friday morning.
“At the end of a chase by the security forces, the terrorist who carried out the attack in Tel Aviv was located and thwarted,” the statement read.
The General Security Service said the suspect was shot and killed by the Shabak security forces following an exchange of fire.
The suspect was “located by the Shabak (General security service) while hiding near a mosque in Jaffa and during an exchange of fire with the Shabak and YAMAM (Israel’s counter terror National unit) fighters, he was killed on the spot,” the statement said.
It identified the gunman as Raed Hazem, a 28-year-old from the Palestinian city of Jenin in the West Bank, who had “no clear organizational affiliation, no security background and no previous arrests.” The service said Hazem did not have a permit to enter Israel and was an illegal resident.
The investigation into the attack continues, according to the General Security Service.
The incident happened at a bar on Dizengoff Street, a popular dining area in the center of the city, an Israeli police commander said.
The number of wounded was not immediately clear. Speaking on Israeli TV, Tel Aviv police commander Ami Eshed put the number at more than a dozen.
Journalist Lauren Izso, on the scene shortly after the attack, estimated hundreds of police were involved in securing the area and searching for the gunman.
Speaking on Israeli TV, Tel Aviv mayor Ron Huldai told residents in the city to stay home.
The two people killed were men who were both around 30 years old, a spokesperson for the Magen David Adom emergency services said.
Tel Aviv’s Ichilov hospital, where most of the casualties were taken, said doctors were fighting to save the lives of four people who were wounded.
The shooting is the latest in a series of violent incidents that have put Israel and the Palestinian territories on edge.
In just one week in March, 11 people were killed in three attacks in Israeli towns and cities. It was the deadliest week Israel had seen in years and follows weeks of rising tensions that saw Israelis targeted in stabbing attacks and several Palestinians shot dead by Israeli forces in the West Bank.
That spate of attacks included five people killed just east of Tel Aviv, in the ultra-orthodox city of Bnei Brak.
It’s not clear whether Thursday’s shooting is connected to the recent violence.
Militant groups in Gaza and the West Bank praised Thursday’s attack, though they stopped short of claiming responsibility.
Hamas called it a heroic operation, while Islamic Jihad vowed “resistance will continue.”
Condemning the attack, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Tor Wennesland, singled out Hamas in a tweet, saying, “Deplore the welcoming of this attack by Hamas; there is no glory in terror. These attacks must stop now and be condemned by all.”
CNN’s Abeer Salman, Ibrahim Dahman, Andrew Carey and Hadas Gold contributed to this report.
Deadly shooting in central Tel Aviv kills 2 as police say there are “indications” of a terrorist attack
An attacker opened fire in a crowded restaurant district in central Tel Aviv on Thursday evening, killing at least two people and wounding several others before fleeing into a dense residential area, Israeli officials said.
Police said there were “indications” it was a politically motivated attack — the fourth deadly assault in Israel in less than three weeks at a time of heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions. The militant Hamas group that rules the Gaza Strip praised the attack but did not claim responsibility.
Hours after the shooting, the suspected gunman remained at large. Hundreds of Israeli police officers, canine units, and army special forces were conducting a massive manhunt in central Tel Aviv, searching building by building through the densely populated residential neighborhoods.
JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images
Amichai Eshel, the Tel Aviv police commander, said the shooter opened fire into a crowded bar at around 9 p.m. and then fled.
“Our working assumption is that he is still in the vicinity,” he told reporters. “As of right now, there are indications pointing to this being a terrorist attack, but I have to be very delicate about this, and say that we are also checking other leads.”
Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service said two men around 30 years old were killed. Another seven people were wounded, three of them seriously, it said.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with top security officials late Thursday, and they agreed to “continue directing large-scale reinforcements to Tel Aviv,” his office said in a statement.
At least one shooting took place on Dizengoff Street, a central thoroughfare. Dizengoff Street has been the scene of several deadly attacks over the years. The popular nightlife area was packed on Thursday evening, the beginning of the Israeli weekend.
Ariel Schalit / AP
TV footage showed armed officers running down Dizengoff Street and side streets trying to track down the attacker, Reuters reported.
Police spokesman Eli Levy said a “terrorist opened fire at short range and then fled on foot,” according to Reuters. He told residents in nearby areas not to leave their homes. “Don’t stick your heads out of the window. Stay off your balconies,” Levy said while on Channel 13.
“It’s an atmosphere of war. Soldiers and police are everywhere… They searched the restaurant,” and people are crying, restaurant worker Binyamin Blum told AFP.
STRINGER / REUTERS
Tensions have been high after a series of attacks by Palestinian assailants killed 11 people just ahead of the holy Islamic month of Ramadan, which began nearly a week ago.
Last month, a gunman on a motorcycle opened fire in a city in central Israel, killing five people. Days before that, a pair of gunmen killed two young police officers during a shooting spree in the central city of Hadera, and the week before, a lone assailant killed four people in a car ramming and stabbing attack in the southern city of Beersheba.
Last year, protests and clashes during Ramadan ignited an 11-day Gaza war.
Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian leaders have held a flurry of meetings in recent weeks, and Israel has taken a number of steps aimed at calming tensions, including issuing thousands of additional work permits for Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
Prior to the attack, Israel had said it would allow women, children and men over 40 from the occupied West Bank to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in east Jerusalem on Friday, the first weekly prayers of Ramadan. Tens of thousands were expected to attend.
The mosque is the third holiest site in Islam and sits on a hilltop that is the most sacred site for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount. The holy site has long been a flashpoint for Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Israel captured east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories to form their future state. The last serious and substantive peace talks broke down more than a decade ago, and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is opposed to Palestinian statehood.
Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a move not recognized internationally and considers the entire city to be its capital.
It withdrew soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005, but along with neighboring Egypt it imposed a crippling blockade on the territory after the militant Hamas group seized power from rival Palestinian forces two years later. Israel and Hamas have fought four wars since then.
The recent attacks appear to have been carried out by lone assailants, perhaps with the help of accomplices. No Palestinian militant group has claimed them, though Hamas has welcomed the attacks.
Hamas spokesman Abdelatif Al-Qanou said late Thursday that the “the heroic attack in the heart of the (Israeli) entity has struck the Zionist security system and proved our people’s ability to hurt the occupation.”
Israel says the conflict stems from the Palestinians’ refusal to accept its existence as a Jewish state and blames attacks in part on incitement on social media. Palestinians say such attacks are the inevitable result of a nearly 55-year military occupation that shows no sign of ending.
Shooting in popular Tel Aviv area kills 2 Israelis; 8 wounded | News
At least two people were killed and another eight wounded in a series of shootings in central Tel Aviv on Thursday.
Hours after the shooting, the suspected gunman remained at large. Hundreds of Israeli police officers, canine units, and army special forces were conducting a massive manhunt in central Tel Aviv, searching building by building through the densely populated residential neighbourhoods.
Amichai Eshed, the Tel Aviv police commander, said the shooter opened fire into a crowded bar at around 9pm (18:00 GMT) and then fled the scene.
“Our working assumption is that he is still in the vicinity,” Eshed told reporters. “As of right now, there are indications pointing to this being a terrorist attack, but I have to be very delicate about this and say that we are also checking other leads.”
Live footage from Israel’s Kan broadcaster showed police flooding the area and training their guns on the upper story of a building. It also showed an explosion of some kind.
Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service said it received reports of a shooting at “several scenes” around downtown Tel Aviv. At least one attack took place on Dizengoff Street, a central thoroughfare and popular weekend hangout.
Two of the wounded later died, The Times of Israel reported, citing officials at Ichilov Medical Center. The hospital was treating eight others – four who were in “critical condition” and undergoing surgery.
Police update reporters on Tel Aviv shooting attack:
One gunman suspected, who fled from the scene and is still at large, with hundreds of police officers fanning the area.
They believe he remains in the area and they ask residents to stay home.
— Amy Spiro (@AmySpiro) April 7, 2022
The motive for the shooting was not immediately clear, but tensions have soared following recent attacks by Palestinians that killed 11 people in Israel.
On March 22, four Israelis were killed in a stabbing attack in Be’er Sheva.
Five days later, two border police officers were killed in a shooting attack in Hadera. On March 30, two Israelis, two Ukrainian nationals, and a police officer were killed in a shooting attack in Bnei Brak.
Outside a café where shattered glass carpeted the ground outside the entrance, a man comforted a woman sitting on a barstool.
“It’s an atmosphere of war. Soldiers and police are everywhere,” said Binyamin Blum, who works in a restaurant near the scene of the attack.
Reporting from West Jerusalem, Al Jazeera’s John Holman said the area where the shooting occurred is “full of bars and cafes”.
“There would have been quite a few people out. Local media are reporting that there were two separate gunmen. This shooting took place in various locations. It does appear to be similar to an attack, rather than a criminal shooting,” said Holman.
“Israel has been sending more police, more security forces out onto the streets, and the prime minister said in the last week or so that anyone who has a gun licence should be carrying their weapon. This is a moment they have braced for, especially since it’s the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which often brings tensions in this part of the world.”
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was monitoring the situation from the Israeli military headquarters, which is also in downtown Tel Aviv, his office said.
The last time such violence happened on Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Street was in 2016 when two people were killed and several wounded in a shooting attack at a bar. The attacker was killed several days later after he escaped the scene.
American and European envoys to Israel were quick to condemn Thursday’s shooting.
Horrified to see another cowardly terror attack on innocent civilians, this time in Tel Aviv. Praying for peace, and sending condolences to the victims and their families. This has to stop!
— Ambassador Tom Nides (@USAmbIsrael) April 7, 2022
Last year, protests and clashes during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan ignited an 11-day Gaza war.
Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian leaders have held a flurry of meetings in recent weeks, and Israel has taken a number of steps aimed at calming tensions, including issuing thousands of additional work permits for Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
Prior to the attack, Israel had said it would allow women, children and men over 40 from the occupied West Bank to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem on Friday, the first weekly prayers of Ramadan.
Tens of thousands were expected to attend.
Israel captured east Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war. The Palestinians want all three territories to form their future state.
The last serious and substantive peace talks broke down more than a decade ago, and Bennett is opposed to Palestinian statehood.
من أحد مواقع إطلاق النار في #تل_أبيب pic.twitter.com/QmYYkMrcaq
— أحمد دراوشة (@AhDarawsha) April 7, 2022
Gunman kills 5 people in shooting rampage near Tel Aviv
“Israel is facing a wave of murderous Arab terror,” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a statement Tuesday.
On Sunday, two Palestinian citizens of Israel shot and killed two policemen in the northern city of Hadera, an attack that came amid a summit between Israeli and Arab diplomats in the Negev desert. The Islamic State group, which has staged only a handful of attacks in Israel, claimed responsibility for the shooting. Last week, another Palestinian Israeli previously convicted for his Islamic State ties stabbed and killed four Israelis in the southern city of Beer Sheva.
In Bnei Brak on Tuesday, the assault began just before 8 p.m. local time, authorities said. The gunman walked through the city, gunning down two Ukrainian citizens sitting at the entrance of a convenience store, then fatally shooting two Israeli men before being shot by an Israeli police officer, an Arab man from the northern town of Nof Hagalil, according to an Israeli police statement. The gunman fired back, injuring the officer who later succumbed to his wounds at the hospital.
Menachem Englander, a local medic with Israel’s national ambulance service, said in a statement that after hearing gunshots Tuesday night, he “immediately went out to the street and saw a terrorist pointing a weapon at me.”
“By a miracle, his weapon jammed and he couldn’t shoot,” Englander said. “I immediately went back into my house, locked my door and reported to the emergency dispatch center.”
The suspected gunman was a 27-year-old Palestinian man from the town of Yabad in the West Bank and had been staying in Israel illegally, Israeli media reported.
In the aftermath of the attack, Bnei Brak and neighboring municipalities said they would close schools and construction sites where Palestinian workers without permits are often informally employed.
Israeli Police Chief Kobi Shabtai raised the nationwide alert level to the highest possible for the first time since Israel fought a war against Hamas in Gaza in May. That conflict was sparked in part by bloody clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police in Jerusalem during Ramadan.
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, released a statement praising the Tuesday attack as a “heroic action against the occupation in Tel Aviv.”
The Palestinian Authority, which is based in the West Bank, said the “killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians will only lead to a further deterioration in the situation, as we try to achieve stability on the eve of Ramadan and the Jewish and Christian holidays.”