Israeli medics said two people were killed and two others wounded in a knife attack near Tel Aviv on Sunday. Police said a Palestinian suspect was “neutralised” and later died in hospital.
The “terrorist attacks” took place at several locations in Holon, a southern suburb of Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv, the Magen David Adom emergency service said in a statement.
The incident comes at a time when tensions are high in Israel and the wider Middle East, nearly 10 months after the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
The knife attack suspect, from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was “neutralised” by a police officer who arrived at the scene, the police force said in a statement.
The attacker was declared dead shortly after being taken in critical condition to a hospital near Holon, the Shamir Medical Center said.
The city’s Wolfson Hospital said a 66-year-old woman and a man in his 80s were seriously injured and died shortly after the attack.
The couple, whose age Magen David Adom previously gave as 70, are married, Israeli news website Ynet said.
Two other people were injured, the emergency service said.
A 68-year-old man is in critical condition and a 26-year-old man is slightly injured.
Magen David Adom said, “This was a complex and difficult terrorist attack whose victims were in three different locations, located approximately 500 meters from each other.”
Regional tensions have escalated as Iran and Middle Eastern armed groups it backs have threatened to take revenge for the killing of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday, which they blame on Israel, and the killing of top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut hours earlier in an Israeli attack.
Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the site of Sunday’s attack, where he told reporters: “Our war is not only against Iran, but also here in the streets”.
“This is why we have granted more than 150,000 gun permits to the Israeli population,” said the right-wing politician who has loosened gun laws and repeatedly called on ordinary Israelis to bear arms.
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