At least nine injured in a deliberate hit and run in Tel Aviv

At least nine people were injured this Tuesday after a Palestinian driving a vehicle in Tel Aviv (Israel) deliberately ran over several pedestrians and then stabbed others.

“The suspect driving a vehicle hit pedestrians in the Pinchas Rosen Street shopping center (Tel Aviv), got out of the vehicle and stabbed others with a sharp object,” the Israeli police said in a statement.

«The terrorist was neutralized by a civilian“, said the police spokesman EFE without giving further details about the attacker. Various media reported that he was shot and died on the spot.

The attacker’s identity has not yet been officially revealed, but Israeli authorities often use the word “terrorist” to refer to a Palestinian who commits a crime for nationalist reasons.

Hebrew media identified him as Hasin Jalila, 23 years olda resident of the city of Samu, in the south of the West Bank, who entered Israel with a medical permit.

“We arrived at the scene with an emergency intensive care car. We saw that it was a very serious scene, and five injured people were lying near the bus stop, a 46-year-old woman was lying on the sidewalk, conscious and with damage to various systems, another four injured people in their 30s received moderate and mild injuries and were transferred are taken to the hospital by ambulance,” explained paramedic Alon Shonim from the Magen David Adom emergency service.

This incident comes as the Israeli army continues its second day in a row aggressive operation in the Jenin refugee campin the occupied West Bank, the largest since the Second Intifada.

This operation triggered serious clashes with local militias in which 10 Palestinians have been killed and more than 100 wounded so far. The Islamist movement Hamas, which de facto rules Gaza and is considered a terrorist organization by Israel and the US, threatened revenge against Israel, hailing Tuesday’s attack as “heroic revenge for the Jenin operation”.

The West Bank is experiencing the highest peak of violence since the Second Intifada (2000-2005), and this year 2023 is experiencing its deadliest year in the last two decades, with 153 Palestinians killed in the context of the conflictmostly militiamen in armed conflicts with Israeli soldiers, but also civilians, among whom were 26 minors.

At the same time, new Palestinian armed groups are gaining strength in the area, carrying out more and more attacks and leaving 25 dead on the Israeli side, most of them settlers and five minors.