Terror attack in Tel Aviv suburb – 5 dead

The shooting in B’nei Brak was the third deadly terror attack in a week.

By JNS.org and World Israel News Staff

An Arab terrorist shot at a passing car in the ultra-Orthodox city of B’nei Brak, in the Tel Aviv District, at around 8 p.m. Tuesday evening. Five people are confirmed dead.

Police shot and killed the shooter — identified as Dia’a Hassan Hamarsheh, 27, from the village of Ya’bed in Samaria — but are searching the area for more terrorists. They reportedly arrested a second suspect.

Hamarsheh was working illegally in Israel. Hebrew-language reports indicate that he was known in the city. He served six months in an Israeli prison in 2013 for membership in a terrorist organization and weapons trafficking, according to Israel’s security cabinet.

He belonged to the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades terrorist organization, the military wing of Fatah, the leading party in the Palestinian Authority headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

“I call on the city’s residents to stay in their homes for the time being and wait for clear instructions from the security forces,” Bnei Brak Mayor Avraham Rubinstein said in an interview on Israel’s Channel 12.

“We heard the shots from the Magen David Adom station and went immediately in their direction,” said MDA emergency responder Lipa Hirsch. “On Herzl Street, we noticed a 30-year-old man lying unconscious. He was out of breath and without a pulse with gunshot wounds.”

About 100 meters down the street, the responders found the second victim, a 40-year-old man in critical condition who was transfered to the hospital for further treatment. He later died of his wounds, too.

The other three dead people were found further up the street, he said.

“I treated a single individual who sustained gunshot wounds, he was in serious condition. The Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit of the organization was dispatched to deal with several people who suffered from shock as a result of witnessing the shooting, ” United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Motti Noiman, who was one of the first responders at the scene, said.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett began a security consultation at 10 p.m. with the participation of the Minister of Defense, the Minister of Internal Security, the Chief of Staff, the Chief of the Shin Bet, the Police chief and other officials.

This is the third terrorist attack in one week.

Seven days ago, an Arab Israeli influenced by ISIS opened fire in the southern city of Beersheba, killing four people. Over the weekend, two 19-year-old border police officers were killed in a shooting attack in Hadera.