BNEI BRAK, (Israel): Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned of a “wave of murderous Arab terrorism” ahead of funerals Wednesday for two of five people killed in a Palestinian shooting rampage in central Israel.
The shooting of four civilians and a police officer in Bnei Brak, an ultra-religious city near Tel Aviv, was the third fatal attack in the Jewish state in the past week.
“Diaa Armashah, 27, a Palestinian from the West Bank village of Yabad, arrived at Jabotinsky Street in Bnei Brak armed with an M-16 assault rifle,” Israeli police said.
Advancing to a nearby street, he shot dead two Ukrainian nationals aged 32 and 23, and then killed two Israelis before being confronted by police, with one of the officers dying in a gunfight that ensued, they added.
Bennett, who heads a disparate coalition government ranging from Jewish nationalists to Arabs, said Israel was “facing a wave of murderous Arab terrorism”.
The premier will convene an emergency meeting with top security officials on Wednesday to review the situation.
Police said its forces were put on the highest level of alert, and the army said it would deploy extra units in and around the West Bank.
Tuesday’s shooting brings to 11 the overall number of deaths from attacks in Israel over the past week, excluding perpetrators.
The latest were identified as Yaakov Shalom, 36, and Avishai Yehezkel, 29, both ultra-Orthodox residents of Bnei Brak, and Amir Khoury, 32, an Arab Christian policeman from Nof Hagalil.
The two slain Ukrainians have yet to be named, with the Ukrainian embassy in Israel confirming their nationality and condemning the “heinous terrorist attacks”.
Israel is home to around 15,000 Ukrainian nationals, but since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, it has received nearly 20,000 refugees from Ukraine, an interior ministry spokeswoman said.
A Ukrainian diplomatic source told AFP they were seasonal workers who had been in Israel for a number of years, rather than war refugees.
An eyewitness said he had seen two dead men outside a cafe where Ukrainian construction workers often gather, as well as the body of his neighbour slumped in a car.
Shlomo Alperin, 23, said he had come across the gruesome scene when the gunfire had subsided and he left his home to investigate.
“It’s painful. It’s your neighbours,” said Alperin. “My neighbour lost his life for nothing.”
The funerals of Yehezkel and Shalom were taking place on Wednesday morning, while Khoury was set to be laid to rest in Nazareth on Thursday.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who is based in the West Bank, issued a rare condemnation of the attacks.
“The killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians will only lead to further deterioration of the situation, while we are all striving for stability,” he said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the “terrorist attack”, calling the recent spate of violence “unacceptable”.
UN chief Antonio Guterres gave a similar statement.
“Such acts of violence can never be justified and must be condemned by all,” his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said.
A shooting on Sunday killed two Israeli police officers — identified as Shirel Aboukrat, a French-Israeli citizen, and Yezen Falah — in the northern city of Hadera.
That assault was later claimed by the Islamic State group — the jihadists’ first claim of an attack on Israeli territory since 2017.
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