IS claim responsibility for Israel attack
The Islamic State group have claimed responsibility for an attack in Israel, which it said killed two soldiers and injured 10, according to a statement posted on the group’s Telegram account.
Israeli police stand next to a body of a victim as they inspect the scene of a shooting attack In Hadera, Israel, Sunday, March 27, 2022. AAP
Two Arab gunmen killed two people in the Israeli city of Hadera and were then shot dead by police, the Israeli ambulance service said on Sunday.
The incident took place as the US secretary of state Antony Blinken and three Arab foreign ministers visited the country for a summit.
The officials said the two assailants in Hadera, a city about 50km north of Tel Aviv, were Arab citizens of Israel.
“We condemn today’s terrorist attack in Hadera, Israel,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote on Twitter.
“Such senseless acts of violence and murder have no place in society. We stand with our Israeli partners and send our condolences to the families of the victims.”
The attack occurred five days after an Arab from southern Israel killed at least four Israelis in a stabbing and car-ramming spree in the city of Beersheba, before he was fatally shot by a passer-by.
Surveillance camera footage broadcast on Israeli television stations showed two men opening fire with assault rifles on a main street in Hadera.
Two people were killed by the assailants, police and emergency services said.
Officials said the two gunmen were shot dead by police officers who had been dining at a nearby restaurant.
“Luckily, our officers managed to neutralise the assailants and prevent a bigger terrorist attack,” police spokesman Eli Levy said on Israel’s Kan television.
In Israel’s southern Negev desert, the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, three countries that normalised relations with Israel in 2020, convened for a summit with Blinken in attendance.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid “updated the foreign ministers participating in the Negev Summit on the details of the terror attack in Hadera”, the Israeli foreign ministry tweeted.
“All the foreign ministers condemned the attack, and asked to send their condolences to the families of the victims & wishes for the recovery of the wounded,” the ministry said.
Israeli security officials have cautioned about an escalation in attacks on Israelis in the run-up to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in April – a volatile period in the past.
Jordan’s King Abdullah is due to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank on Monday in what is widely seen in Israel as an attempt to calm tensions ahead of the holiday period, which also includes Easter and Passover.
The Zionist Federation of Australia condemned the terrorist attack in Hadera.
ZFA President Jeremy Leibler said, “The Australian Jewish community stands with the people of Israel and joins in their mourning. We condemn utterly not just these attacks but the barbarous ideology that spawns them.
Mr Leibler continued, “The contrast between hope and hate couldn’t be greater. Foreign ministers from across the region are gathered in Israel to discuss a shared future, while these terrorists are inciting violence and trying to recreate a murderous past.”
AAP with J-Wire
