A new attack claims at least two dead and eight wounded in Tel Aviv

One of those injured in the Tel Aviv attack, this Thursday upon arrival at a hospital.GIDEON MARKOWICZ (AFP)

A new attack with firearms, the fourth in 16 days, has hit the center of Tel Aviv on Thursday night, where at least two people have died.

An armed man has opened fire indiscriminately in the leisure area of ​​Dizengoff Street, one of the busiest in the coastal city at the start of the weekend in the Middle East.

A police spokesman reported through the public television channel KAN that the emergency services had evacuated from various points at least eight gunshot wounded to various hospitals.

The shots were fired throughout several places with terraces, packed with customers in the middle of a spring temperature.

From the scene of the attack, the mayor of Tel Aviv, Ron Huldai, asked citizens to stay in their homes to facilitate the tasks of the security forces, who were trying to capture the author of the attack after he had fled on foot.

Television images showed dozens of ambulances and police vehicles in the central district of bars and restaurants, while hundreds of members of the security forces in military gear walked the streets in an atmosphere of war.

After the death of 11 people in the wave of attacks registered between March 22 and 29, the Army has returned to patrol since this week through the center of the main cities of Israel, for the first time since the Intifada of the Knives of 2015-2016.

Hundreds of civilians also carry rifles and pistols ostensibly through those same streets, following the recommendation of the Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett.

The response to one of the largest strings of shooting attacks in urban areas, committed by Arabs of Israeli nationality and Palestinians from the West Bank, has bridged the gap between the territories located on both sides of the Green Line, the dividing line between Israel and the territories Palestinians.

The escalation of violence has also impacted against the fragile coalition of disparate political forces led by the ultra-nationalist Bennett, who lost his majority in the Knesset (Parliament) on Wednesday.

The political alliance had been forged just 10 months ago with the aim of removing conservative Benjamin Netanyahu from power after 12 years in power.

The first two attacks of the current wave surprised the intelligence services in Beersheva (south, four dead) and Hadera (north, two dead) at the end of March, due to the unexpected participation of Arabs with Israeli citizenship who had already been sentenced in the past for his ties to the Islamic State.

The third, which claimed the lives of five people in Bnei Brak (an ultra-religious district of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area), was committed on the 29th by a Palestinian who infiltrated from Jenin (north of the West Bank), and who had also been imprisoned. for his affiliation with Islamic Jihad.

The convergence during the month of April of the Muslim Ramadan with the Jewish Passover (which this year fully coincides with the Christian Holy Week) makes the authorities fear that violence will escalate in the West Bank and, above all, in East Jerusalem.

The Old City has experienced clashes between Palestinian protesters and security forces on the first nights of Ramadan, such as those that preceded Israel's military intervention in the Gaza Strip in May 2021.

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