three injured in an attack in Tel Aviv, the assailant shot dead

In a climate of strong tensions and renewed violence linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, tthree people were wounded by bullets in Tel-Aviv, on the evening of Thursday March 9, in a “terrorist attack”whose author was shot dead by a policeman. The shootings took place around 8:40 p.m. on the first evening of the Israeli weekend on the popular Dizengoff Avenue in the center of Tel Aviv, while opponents of the government’s judicial reform plan demonstrated elsewhere in the city.

In a statement, Hamas said the attack was carried out by a member of its armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Motaz Khawaja, 23, from the town of Nilin, near Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank. . Without claiming “the operation”, Hamas describes Khawaja as “heroic martyr” and presents his act as a “personal initiative”and an “natural response to the crimes of the occupation” Israeli.

A cafe targeted

Initially, Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, indicated that it had “evacuated three gunshot wounds, one in critical condition, one seriously injured, and one lightly”. The Ichilov hospital then clarified that the condition of the injured, initially announced as critical, had improved.

Police spokesman Dean Elsdunne said “the terrorist started shooting at civilians [dans] A coffee” before being chased and killed by police officers who thus “succeeded in preventing a much more serious attack from taking place”. In a statement, Minister of Internal Security Itamar Ben Gvir congratulated “the policeman who, in a brave act, eliminated the heinous terrorist and saved many lives”. In a press release from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, France condemned “with the greatest firmness” this attack.