At least five people were killed on Tuesday, March 29, in armed attacks in the suburbs of the Israeli metropolis Tel Aviv.

Police said they shot the assailant without revealing his identity.

This is the third attack in Israel in a week.

“We unfortunately found the death of five people,” Elie Bin, director of Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, told the Kan channel.

In the evening, residents of Bnei Brak, an ultra-Orthodox town on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, then of the neighboring town of Ramat Gan, reported a man driving in a car and opening fire on passers-by.

The attack, confirmed by the police, was not immediately claimed.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced that senior security officials would meet in the evening to take stock of the situation. 

Third deadly attack in a week

Sunday in Hadera, in the north of Israel, two police officers, including a Franco-Israeli, were killed in a shooting claimed by the jihadist organization Islamic State (IS).

Israeli police identified the attackers, who were shot dead and described as Israeli Arab ISIS operatives.

On March 22, in Beer-Sheva in the south, four Israelis, two men and two women, died in a knife and car-ram attack perpetrated by a man inspired by the ideology of the IS group.

The Hadera assailant, shot dead by police, was a teacher sentenced in 2016 to four years in prison for planning to travel to Syria to fight in IS and for sermons advocating for him.

ISIS attack in Hadera hailed by Hamas

After Sunday's attack, the Palestinian armed Islamist movements of Hamas and Islamic Jihad hailed a "heroic operation".

Hamas, the ruling group in the Gaza Strip, said it was a "natural and legitimate response to the occupation" and to Israel's "crimes".

These attacks come at a time when meetings are increasing in an attempt to ease tensions as Ramadan approaches, the month of Muslim fasting which is due to begin at the end of the week.

In 2021, clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian demonstrators during Ramadan in Jerusalem, notably on the esplanade of the Mosques, led to a deadly 11-day war between Hamas, in power in Gaza, and the Israeli army.

With AFP

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