Palestinian drives into Israelis and goes on stabbing spree in Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv — A Palestinian rammed a pickup truck into pedestrians in Tel Aviv and then went on a stabbing rampage on Tuesday, in an attack claimed by the Hamas militant group that Israeli authorities said wounded eight people.

The 20-year-old Palestinian, from the West Bank, was shot dead by an armed civilian, police said. Israel’s Shin Bet security agency said he entered the country without a permit and had no record of security offences.

Hamas claimed him as a member, saying he struck in Israel's commercial capital in retaliation for the ongoing military raid in the flashpoint West Bank town of Jenin, in which 10 Palestinians have been killed during clashes with local gunmen.

“This heroic [Tel Aviv] operation is an act of self-defence in the face of the ongoing Zionist massacre in Jenin, the crimes of displacement, killing and destruction executed by occupation forces,” Hamas said in a statement.

CCTV video circulated online showed a pickup truck mounting a pavement and bicycle lane outside a mall at high speed, striking at least two people. The driver is seen exiting through a window, stabbing a cafe-goer and chasing other people with knife in hand.

Khaled Al-Batsh, a senior official from the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad movement praised the attack as “an initial and natural response of the resistance towards what is happening in Jenin.”

A spokesperson for the Magen David Adom ambulance service said some of the eight people injured had knife wounds. 

Reuters