Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mobilised police and army reserves late Friday after separate attacks killed three people in the West Bank and Tel Aviv in the latest escalation of deadly violence.
Despite appeals for restraint, violence has surged since Israeli police clashed with Palestinians on Wednesday inside Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque, with Israel bombarding both Gaza and Lebanon following rocket fire by Palestinian militants.
Israel’s army said it had launched a manhunt for the perpetrators of Friday’s shooting in the occupied West Bank which killed two sisters and seriously wounded their mother.
It said the victims were fired on as their vehicle passed through Hamra junction in the northern part of the Jordan Valley. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
In central Tel Aviv, one man was killed and five people were wounded late Friday in a car-ramming attack, Israeli rescue services said.
“All the victims were tourists,” the Magen David Adom emergency service said, without providing details on their nationalities.
Three people, including a 17-year-old, were moderately wounded, while two had light injuries, the rescue service added.
A police spokesman said “the terrorist was neutralised, it was a terror attack against civilians, a car ramming attack”.
Shortly afterwards, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “instructed the Israel Police to mobilise all reserve border police units and has directed the IDF to mobilise additional forces”, his office said.
Read the article in The Australian (AFP).