One dead and seven wounded in Tel Aviv ‘terror attack’ after car rams into crowd of people at seaside resort, Israeli authorities say

At least seven people have been wounded in a suspected attack in Tel Aviv, Israeli authorities said. 

The exact nature of the attack was not immediately clear, but the Israeli Foreign Ministry referred to it as a ‘terror attack’, a term Israeli officials use for assaults by Palestinians. 

Israeli police said a car rammed into a group of people near a popular seaside park before flipping over. 

Police said they shot the driver of the car. Israel’s rescue service described the incident as a shooting attack. 

The attack came against the backdrop of heightened tensions after Israeli air strikes on Palestinian militant targets in both Lebanon and Gaza, as well as a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank that killed two earlier today.

Israeli officials work at the scene of an attack in Tel Aviv after a shooting in the West Bank

One was killed and seven were injured in the attack which took place this evening in Israel

A person wounded in the attack is brought to a hospital by medics in Tel Aviv earlier today

The Magen David Adom emergency service said the casualty was a man around the age of 30, and reports have said he was a foreign tourist visiting Israel.

Walla, an Israeli internet company based in Tel Aviv, reported that the attacker was a 45-year-old Palestinian resident of Kafir Qasim, a city in Israel.

READ MORE: Two British sisters – one aged 15 and another in her 20s – are killed and their mother, 48, is seriously wounded in West Bank shooting

They said a 74-year-old man, a 39-year-old man, a 17-year-old girl in ‘moderate’ condition, a man in his 50s and a 70-year-old woman were taken to the Wolfson Hospital in Holon and Ichilov.

A 31-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman, both tourists, were later taken to hospital with slight injuries. 

The attacker was seen to drive south near the Charles Clore promenade, hitting tourists on the pavement.

The vehicle lost control, flipped, and the attacker was shot dead by officials.

The attack follows a spate of violence between Palestinian and Israeli factions leading on from a police raid of the Al-Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem on Wednesday morning.

After rockets landed in Israel from Lebanon on Thursday, which Israel blamed on pro-Palestinian forces, Prime Minister Netanyahu gave the green light for bombing of targets in Gaza overnight.

Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the barrage of rockets.

Following the bombing of Gaza late Thursday night, two British-Israeli nationals were shot dead in an attack on their car near Hamra, 30 miles north of Jerusalem, today.

Again, nobody took responsibility for the attack but Palestinian group Hamas, the de facto governing authority of the Gaza Strip, said it was a ‘natural response to [Israel’s] ongoing crimes against the al-Aqsa mosque and its barbaric aggression against Lebanon and the steadfast Gaza.’

Hamas did not take responsibility for the car ramming into crowds in Tel Aviv either, but praised the attack as a response to Israel’s ‘crimes against Al-Aqsa Mosque and worshippers’.

Israeli police and emergency service stand around a car involved in an attack in Tel Aviv today

Violence has spiralled since Israeli police stormed the Al Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem with tear gas and stun grenades to confront Palestinians barricaded inside with fireworks and stones.

Muslim worshippers have been demanding the right to pray overnight inside the mosque, which authorities typically only permit during the last 10 days of the month-long Ramadan holiday.

They also stayed in the mosque in protest threats by religious Jews to carry out a ritual animal slaughter at the sacred site for Passover.

At least 14 Palestinians were injured and hundreds arrested on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning as Israeli police raided the mosque, sparking global condemnation.

Video footage dated 5 April showed police beating protestors with rifles. Other footage showed Palestinians inside the mosque shooting fireworks back at the security forces.

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