JENIN: A Hamas militant drove his car into a crowded bus stop in Tel Aviv on Tuesday and began stabbing people, wounding eight in an attack praised by Palestinian militant groups as a response to Israel’s ongoing military operation in the occupied West Bank.
Police chief Kobi Shabtai told reporters that an armed civilian shot and killed the assailant.
The attack came as Israeli troops pressed ahead with their hunt for Palestinian militants and weapons in the Jenin refugee camp, after military bulldozers tore through alleys and thousands of residents fled to safety. The two-day Palestinian death toll rose to 10.
The large-scale raid, which began Monday, is one of the most intense military operations in the occupied West Bank in nearly two decades.
It bore hallmarks of Israeli military tactics during the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s and came as Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu faces growing pressure from his ultranationalist political allies for a tough response to recent attacks on Israeli settlers, including a shooting last month that killed four people.
But the current violence is also different from the intense years of what was known as the second intifada, a period that claimed thousands of lives.
It’s more limited in scope, with Israeli military operations focused on several strongholds of Palestinian militants. More than 140 Palestinians have been killed this year in the West Bank, part of more than a yearlong spike in violence.