A gunman killed at least five people in a Tel Aviv suburb before he was fatally shot, according to the national ambulance service. The shooting was the third deadly attack in Israel in a week.
“Israel is facing a wave of murderous Arab terror,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett tweeted after the shootings in Bnei Brak, a Jewish ultra-Orthodox city on the outskirts of Israel’s commercial capital.
Over the past week, 11 people have been killed by gunmen, the sharpest spike in attacks on city streets in years. They come as peace talks on ending Israel’s rule over Palestinians and setting up a Palestinian state on occupied lands are a distant memory. In the meantime, Israel has shifted its priorities to containing archenemy Iran and building regional Arab alliances.
Israel’s leaders have considered the current wave another round of extremist violence aimed against its very existence. They have blamed incitement on Palestinian social media, saying that Hamas encourages the violence and pointing to a flood of weapons available in Palestinian communities.
In response to the violence, Israel has increased its security presence in Israeli cities and the occupied West Bank. It has made arrests in Arab communities and raided the West Bank home of the man who carried out Tuesday’s attack.
“We are dealing with a new wave of terror,” said Bennett. “As in other waves, we will prevail.”
