Chloé Lagadou, with AFP 19:31 p.m., April 08, 2023

In Israel, authorities are mobilizing more police after two attacks. Benjamin Netanyahu wants military reinforcements after the two attacks that killed three people including an Italian tourist. The international community calls for calm and the European Union calls for maximum restraint.

Israel is preparing Saturday to reinforce its troops in the wake of two attacks that killed three people, the latest episodes in a new cycle of violence in the Middle East. On Friday night, an Italian tourist was killed on the Tel Aviv waterfront and seven other people, aged between 17 and 74, were injured in a car-ramming attack, some of whom are also Italian. According to police, the 45-year-old driver who was shot dead was from the Arab town of Kfar Kassem in central Israel. Three people remain at Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital with minor injuries, the facility said Saturday.

At the scene of the attack, passers-by placed flowers on an Israeli flag and others lit candles, an AFP journalist said. Italian President Sergio Mattarella condemned in a statement a "despicable terrorist act" while the anti-terrorist unit of the Rome prosecutor's office opened an investigation.

Mobilization of all police units

"There is no justification for acts of terrorism, they must be condemned and rejected by all," UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland wrote on Twitter. Earlier on Friday, two sisters from the Israeli settlement of Efrat, aged 16 and 20, were killed and their mother seriously injured in an attack in the West Bank. The two sisters, of Israeli and British nationality, were victims of Palestinian fire on their vehicle in the north-east of this Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.

I condemn yesterday's terrorist attacks in the occupied West Bank and Tel Aviv. Heartfelt condolences to the victims' families. There is no justification for acts of terrorism and they must be clearly condemned and rejected by all.

— Tor Wennesland (@TWennesland) April 8, 2023

Following the attack in Tel Aviv, which occurred on Shabbat night and during Passover week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "ordered the Israel Police to mobilize all reserve Border Police units, and [the army] to mobilize additional forces to deal with the terrorist attacks." Police said four Border Police reserve battalions would be deployed as early as Sunday in city centers, in addition to units already mobilized in the mixed city of Lod and the Jerusalem area.

A "natural and legitimate response"

The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas said the Tel Aviv attack was a "natural and legitimate response" to Israel's "aggression" at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque. The current outbreak of fever follows violence Wednesday on the esplanade of the Mosques, the third holiest site in Islam and the holiest site in Judaism, also epicenter of tensions in the holy city. Israeli forces brutally stormed into the Al-Aqsa Mosque to dislodge worshippers in the middle of Ramadan, prompting widespread condemnation.

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Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Israeli forces had been "forced to act to restore order" in the face of "extremists" barricaded in the mosque, while Hamas, which has fought several wars against Israel, denounced an "unprecedented crime". Following the violence, Israel carried out strikes targeting Hamas infrastructure in the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon, in response to dozens of rockets being fired into its territory. The Israeli military claimed that the firing, which was not claimed, was "Palestinian", and probably Hamas.

Making Israel's 'enemies' 'enemies' pay a 'high price'

On the Israeli-Lebanese front, this is an escalation unprecedented since 2006. Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed to make Israel's "enemies" pay "a high price" for "every aggression" against his country. Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shiite organization with a strong presence in southern Lebanon, said that "the entire axis of resistance is on alert," after supporting "all measures" that Palestinian groups could take against Israel.

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Israel and Lebanon are technically in a state of war after various conflicts and the ceasefire line is controlled by the United Nations Interim Force (UNIFIL), deployed in southern Lebanon. According to UNIFIL, "both sides have said they do not want war." Qatar, which has in the past mediated between Israel and Gaza's ruling Hamas, is "working towards de-escalation" to "prevent carnage," a Qatari official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Since early January, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of at least 91 Palestinians, 18 Israelis, one Ukrainian and one Italian, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli and Palestinian sources. These figures include, on the Palestinian side, combatants and civilians, including minors, and on the Israeli side, the majority of whom are civilians, including minors, and three members of the Arab minority.