BNEI
BRAK, Israel —
Israelis on Wednesday mourned five people killed by a Palestinian gunman, the
third deadly attack in a week, as Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned of a
“wave of murderous Arab terrorism”.
اضافة اعلان
“The pain is great,” Bennett wrote on
Twitter as several victims were laid to rest, police forces were placed on the
highest alert and the Israeli occupation forces said extra units would be deployed
in and around the West Bank.
The shooter, Diaa Armashah, 27, from the West
Bank village of Yabad, opened fire on Tuesday evening with an M-16 assault
rifle in Bnei Brak, a mostly Jewish Orthodox city near Tel Aviv, police said.
Armashah killed two Ukrainian men and two
Israelis before police confronted him, authorities said. An Arab-Israeli
officer died in the ensuing gunfight that also killed the assailant.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas issued a
rare condemnation, saying the killings “will only lead to further deterioration
of the situation, while we are all striving for stability.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken
condemned the “terrorist attack” while a spokesman for UN chief Antonio
Guterres said “such acts of violence can never be justified and must be
condemned by all.”
Ismail Haniyeh, leader of Hamas, however
praised the “heroic operation” as “legitimate and moral valiant resistance to
end the occupation”.
Police said on Wednesday that they had
arrested a West Bank Palestinian suspect for posting videos on TikTok
“identifying with the terror attack in Bnei Brak” and an 18-year-old Israeli
citizen from the Bedouin city of Rahat on suspicion of supporting Daesh.
Avishai Yehezkel, Yaakov Shalom, and Amir
Khoury, an Arab Christian policeman from Nof Hagalil, perished in Tuesday’s
attack.
Bennett tweeted a salute to Khoury, saying
he “sacrificed himself heroically to save human lives, leaving behind a
grieving and wounded family”.
The Ukrainian embassy condemned the “heinous
terrorist attack” without immediately naming its two nationals, men aged 23 and
32.
Israel was home to around 15,000 Ukrainians
before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. It has since received nearly
20,000 refugees from Ukraine, an interior ministry spokeswoman said.
A Ukrainian diplomatic source told AFP the
men killed were workers who had been in Israel for several years.
Yehezkel and Shalom were buried Wednesday,
while Khoury was set to be laid to rest in Nazareth on Thursday.
“Israel is facing a wave of murderous Arab
terrorism,” said Bennett, whose disparate coalition government ranges from
rightwing Jewish nationalists to Arab Islamists.
Tuesday’s shooting brings to 11 the total
death toll from attacks in Israel over the past week, excluding the
perpetrators.
Sunday’s attack coincided with a landmark
meeting between Israel’s foreign minister and those of four Arab countries with
ties to Israel, as well as Blinken.
The latest attack came as Defense Minister
Benny Gantz visited Jordan’s King Abdullah to discuss ways to ensure calm in
the Palestinian territories during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Tensions flared last year during the fasting
month, which resulted in an 11-day war by Israel on the Gaza Strip.
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