At least three people died and four others were injured, one in critical condition, in an alleged terrorist attack carried out this Thursday afternoon in the ultra-Orthodox majority city of Elad, near Tel Aviv, in central Israel, as reported. the emergency service and medical assistance Magen David Adom.
The attack comes amid an alarming wave of violence in the Holy Land in recent weeks.
It also happens the day that Israel celebrates Independence Day and after a new tense day in Jerusalem.
The Israeli police have stated that, according to information received by residents of Elad, two men attacked a group of people who were in a park in the city.
One of the attackers carried a firearm and the other used an ax or a large knife, according to local media.
According to the same witnesses, the two suspected perpetrators of the attack fled in a vehicle.
The police have assured that they have closed the roads in the area and have been deployed to capture them.
The country's Foreign Minister, Yair Lapid, has been the first member of the government coalition to react to the attack and, in a message on social networks, has assured that "the joy of Independence Day has been cut short in a instant".
This Thursday's attack joins a series of attacks perpetrated in recent weeks in Israel and in settlements located in the occupied West Bank that have left 16 dead.
The Israeli army has in parallel intensified its activities in the West Bank and has killed at least 26 Palestinians, including civilians who had not been involved in previous attacks or clashes with the security forces.
Last Friday, an Israeli guard was killed in a West Bank settlement and Israeli forces killed an uninvolved Palestinian near the site shortly thereafter.
The tension escalated again this Thursday morning when the Israeli police re-entered the Esplanade of the Mosques of the Old City of Jerusalem to evict Palestinian protesters and facilitate the resumption of Jewish visits to the compound, which was they had suspended during the celebrations of the end of the month of ramadán, celebrated this week.
The esplanade, which houses the Al Aqsa mosque, the third holiest place in Islam, has been the scene of occasional violent clashes with the Israeli police in the last month, which have left dozens of Palestinians injured.
The Palestinian armed group Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, for its part praised the attack on Thursday and, although it did not claim responsibility, related it to the violence on the Esplanade of the Mosques.
"The assault on the Al-Aqsa mosque cannot go unpunished," said Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem.
“The heroic operation in Tel Aviv is a practical translation of what the resistance had warned about,” he stated.
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