Italian tourist killed, seven others hurt in terror attack

An Italian tourist was killed and seven others were hurt in a terror attack on a promenade in Tel Aviv on Friday night, police and medics said.

According to law enforcement officials, the alleged terrorist carried out a car-ramming attack and attempted to open fire on Kaufmann Street, leaving a trail of carnage along several hundred meters and into the adjacent Charles Clore Park, a popular seaside promenade.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said one of the victims, a man in his 30s, had died, and seven others were hurt, with three in moderate condition.

The fatality was later identified as Italian national Alessandro Parini, a 35-year-old lawyer from Rome. The wounded victims were also tourists from Italy and the United Kingdom, according to hospital officials. They were not named.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her solidarity with Israel following the “cowardly attack” in Tel Aviv in which seven other people were injured, including other tourists.

“Deep sorrow and condolences for the death of one of our nationals, Alessandro Parini, in the terrorist attack that took place in the evening in Tel Aviv. Condolences to the victim’s family, to the wounded, and solidarity with the State of Israel for the cowardly attack that hit him,” she wrote on Twitter. Meloni said her government was in contact with Israeli authorities about the wounded victims, some of whom are also Italian nationals.

Italian Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani, also the minister of foreign affairs, likewise condemned the attack in Tel Aviv and said the ministry was working with Israeli authorities on the matter.

The attack was the second deadly incident of the day, after a shooting in the West Bank Friday morning killed two sisters and left their mother fighting for her life. The uptick in violence has come as tensions have spiked in recent days following Israeli police incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound to quell rioting; on Thursday, Hamas terrorists fired volleys of rockets at Israel from Gaza and Lebanon, authorities said.

The terrorist in the Tel Aviv attack was named as Yousef Abu Jaber, 45, a resident of Kafr Qassem. He had no known prior security offenses.

Shin Bet agents and police officers were at Jaber’s home in the central Arab-majority city on Friday night to question his family members.

The People’s Committee in Kafr Qassem, a local leadership group, said in a statement that members “strongly condemn the serious attack that took place tonight, send our condolences to the family of the person murdered, and wish a speedy recovery to those injured.”

“We condemn any harm to innocent lives and call for tolerance from all sides. This is not the way of the residents of Kafr Qassem. The city was and remains a place for living together and pursuing peace,” the group said.

Following the attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed police to mobilise all reserve Border Police companies and the military to call up additional reservists, his office said in a short statement.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Surveillance camera footage showed the attacker’s vehicle speeding toward pedestrians walking near the park, before overturning.

Another clip from the scene showed the overturned car at the park, with officers opening fire at a man who got out of the vehicle.

Tel Aviv police chief Amichai Eshed said the suspected attacker drove onto a bicycle lane in a “clear” manner and hit a number of people in the pedestrian area.

Police said an officer at a nearby gas station heard the car overturning and rushed to the scene, alongside municipal inspectors. They saw the driver trying “to reach a rifle-like object that was with him” and fatally shot the attacker. Police believe Jaber had a firearm and was planning to open fire.

“The policeman approached the car together with Tel Aviv municipality inspectors, and saw that the driver was trying to reach for a weapon he had in his possession,” police said.

Police were looking into the attacker’s motives and background, and were searching the area for evidence, Eshed said in a statement to the media. He said there were no fears of other attackers.

Tensions have soared across the region after tit-for-tat rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and Israeli strikes, a major rocket barrage from Lebanon, clashes at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, as well as a suspected Iranian drone launched from Syria earlier in the week.

There have also been several attacks in the West Bank, with three soldiers hurt in a car-ramming attack on Saturday, and two more soldiers hurt in separate shooting attacks on Wednesday and Thursday.

Also during the past week, two soldiers were injured, one seriously, in a terror stabbing near the Tzrifin military base in central Israel.

The Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which this year once again coincides with the Jewish festival of Passover, is known to be a period of high tensions between Israeli forces and Palestinians. Tens of thousands of worshipers visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque — Islam’s third holiest site, located in the compound that is the most sacred to Jews — throughout the month, regularly leading to a spike in tensions and violence with Israel.

The IDF imposed a closure on the West Bank from 5pm Wednesday until Saturday evening, with crossing points closed to Palestinians on the first day of the Passover holiday. Gaza border crossings were also closed. The same was set to happen next week on the last day of Passover beginning on April 11 and lasting until April 12.

Some crossings opened Friday to let worshipers attend mass prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Such closures are standard practice during festivals and holidays. The military says they are a preventative measure against attacks in periods of increased tensions.

Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have been high for the past year, with the IDF conducting near-nightly raids in the West Bank amid a series of deadly Palestinian terror attacks.

Palestinian terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank in recent months have left 18 people dead and several more seriously hurt.

At least 89 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the year, most of them while carrying out attacks or during clashes with security forces, though some were uninvolved civilians and others were killed under circumstances that are being investigated.

Times of Israel
TOI staff contributed to this report.