Hamas’s military wing claims responsibility for attack that left seven dead in Tel Aviv

Two men opened fire on tram passengers and passers-by. A “heroic operation”, welcome the Al-Qassam Brigades in a press release published Wednesday.

The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas claimed responsibility, Wednesday, October 2, for the attack the day before in which seven people were killed with automatic weapons and knives at a tram station in the Jaffa district of Tel -Aviv, in central Israel. “The Al-Qassam Brigades take responsibility for the heroic operation in Jaffa led by Qassam fighters Mohammed Rachid Misk and Ahmed Abdoulfattah Al-Haïmoni from the city of Hebron”in the occupied West Bank, the movement said in a statement.

The latest human toll stands at seven dead, according to Israeli police. The identities of those killed have not been officially released by authorities. Only two of them were identified Wednesday morning by Israeli media: Shahar Goldman, aged 30, and Inbar Segev, 33, two Israelis. The Greek Foreign Ministry also announced that a “Greek citizen, residing in Jerusalem” was among the victims.

The attackers used “an M-16 automatic rifle, several magazines and a knife” And “began their killing spree by entering the tram car stopped at the station, opening fire on the passengers”before shooting at passers-by on Jerusalem Avenue, according to a police statement released Wednesday morning. One of the attackers, Mohammed Misk, aged 19, was shot dead in the street and the other, Ahmed Al-Haïmoni, was injured and transferred to a hospital in serious condition, according to police.

Both were from the city of Hebron, in the south of the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967. According to the police, Israeli security forces arrested several people suspected of having helped the two perpetrators of the attack.