A third attack in six days. In the aftermath of the attack that left five dead near Tel Aviv on Tuesday March 29, Israel buries its dead and tracks down the relatives of the terrorist, shot dead during the attack, raising fears of the start of a new wave of violence. . On Tuesday evening, the young man opened fire on the crowd while driving in Bnei Brak, before being killed by the police.
The drama unfolded, in the suburbs of Tel-Aviv, in this very narrow city of Bnei Brak, which counts more than 200,000 inhabitants. It is the fourth most dense city in the world.
This city is notably populated by ultra-Orthodox Jews: these men with white shirts, hats and black clothes and these women with clothes covering wigs or headscarves.
It is a city famous for its synagogues and its religious schools which had never known an attack recalls Léa Lévy, doctor and resident of Bnei Brak, who says she is shocked by this attack. “We had the belief that it was a protected city. There was a great rabbi, Haim Kanievsky, who died at the age of 94, last week and he, when he gave his blessing to people, he advised them to come and live in Bnei Brak, telling them that they would be safe there, that it was a city protected by the wisdom of its people. And unfortunately, we feel in a city like any other now and we no longer feel safe“, she explains at the microphone of franceinfo.
Among the victims: two Jewish Israelis, as well as two Ukrainian workers and an Arab Israeli policeman, Amir Khoury, 32, who participated in the operation to kill the assailant and described as a “hero” by the police. “Bnei Brak is a city where Jews and Arabs live together very well. There are many Arab people who live here during the week, in general, for work reasons, especially as hospital staff since there are many retirement homes, as well as many people who work in the field of building. We didn’t think there could be an attack here“, she regrets. Before slipping: “Terrorism targets Jews but does not only affect Jews, but also the Arab community, which is a victim of it, and it is very hard.”
This attack occurs in an already very tense security climate. In six days, the country experienced three attacks, one of which was claimed by Daesh, and which left eleven dead. The Israeli authorities already feared that Ramadan, which begins on Saturday, would witness an explosion of violence and were consulting their Palestinian, Jordanian and American interlocutors in all directions. This Wednesday, the Israeli police are on high alert and the army will strengthen its presence in the occupied West Bank, including helicopters, which monitor downtown Jerusalem. Haaretz, the major left-wing daily newspaper, evokes a situation of “national emergency” and already points to a flaw in domestic intelligence.
Israel is facing a security crisis.
This is already a genuine terrorist onslaught, the worst Israel has experienced in six years, writes Amos Harelhttps://t.co/xUlygDjWfs
— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) March 30, 2022
Tuesday night, cries of “Revenge, death to the Arabs“sounded when, in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, Palestinians were celebrating this attack. The authorities fear a chain of violence by extremists of all stripes, from all communities, as was the case in the 1990s.