Three people were killed in a shooting attack in the West Bank, including an American yeshiva student, hours after two Jewish men were stabbed to death in Tel Aviv at a prayer service.
The five deaths in the attacks, reportedly by Palestinians, are the most on a single day since the latest spate of terror attacks by Palestinians began last month.
In the West Bank attack on Wednesday, near the Alon Shvut settlement in the Gush Etzion bloc, the victims are reported to be an American yeshiva student in his 20s, a Jewish-Israeli in his 50s and a Palestinian. At least seven other people were wounded, including some American tourists.
At least one attacker, reported to be a Palestinian, shot into a minivan full of people as well as another car near a traffic junction and then rammed his car into several other cars and bystanders, according to reports. One shooter reportedly exited his car and was shot and injured by security forces.
Three hours earlier, the attack in Tel Aviv occurred next to the entrance of an office used as a synagogue in the Panorama office building during afternoon services, Israel’s Channel 2 reported live from the scene.
One man died at the scene and two were injured; one later succumbed at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. The other wounded man was in serious to moderate condition at the same hospital, where the attacker is being treated.
Aharon Yesiab, a rabbi from Tel Aviv, was identified as one of those killed. He worked at the Panorama building and was stabbed when he exited a prayer service there. The second victim was later identified as Aviram Reuven, 51.
The Palestinian assailant who was wounded while being apprehended by civilians is in police custody. Police searched for a second alleged assailant, leading to the closing of several roads in the city, but later concluded that there was only one attacker.
Haaretz reported that the assailant received a permit to enter Israel from the West Bank about a month ago and told police he entered Israel with the intent to attack and kill Jews.
In a post on his Facebook page offering his sympathy to the families of the victims, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote: “Behind these terrorist attacks stands radical Islam, which seeks to destroy us, the same radical Islam that struck in Paris and threatens all of Europe. Whoever condemned the attacks in France needs to condemn the attacks in Israel. It’s the same terror. Whoever does not do this is a hypocrite and blind.”
The attack comes a day after the one-year anniversary of the Palestinian terror attack on a synagogue in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem that left six dead — five worshippers and a Druze police officer. One of the victims died last month after remaining in a coma for nearly a year.
