At least seven dead in suspected terror attack shooting in Tel Aviv: Israeli police
At least seven people were killed when two terrorists opened fire and stabbed victims near Tel Aviv on Tuesday, Israeli police said.
The attack came only minutes before Iran launched a large volley of ballistic missiles into Israeli territory in retaliation for last week’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and several other top officials of the terror group.
The deadly attack unfolded when the terrorists jumped off a train in the central Israeli city of Jaffa just after 7 p.m. local time, according to authorities.
One of the attackers used a gun while the other used a knife, The Times of Israel reported, citing police.
Seven people were killed and eight others wounded, according to the report.
Authorities were on scene investigating the attack as air-raid sirens sounded alerting residents to seek shelter ahead of the imminent missile strike.
Chilling surveillance footage captured one of the men brandishing a rifle as the duo emerged from the train, while the bodies of blood-soaked victims were strewn on the ground nearby.
The two suspects were shot dead by security forces and an armed civilian, police said.
Police are treating the train station incident as a suspected terror attack.
Paramedics were still on the scene treating the wounded — including two people who were unconscious and in critical condition, the ambulance service said.
Meanwhile, police were also investigating concerns of another terror-related incident at a hotel in the Herzliya section of the city.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the two incidents were connected.
Cops haven’t disclosed any further details about the second incident.
The shooting came just hours after Israel launched a ground invasion against Hezbollah in Lebanon and the terror group retaliated by firing off dozens of rockets — including targeted attacks on the Mossad spy agency and a military base near Tel Aviv.
Moments after the shooting, Iran — which provides financial backing and other support to numerous anti-Israel groups including Hezbollah — fired nearly 200 ballistic missiles into densely populated areas of the Jewish state.
At least two were reported injured, but the only reported death in the strikes so far was identified as a Palestinian laborer named Sameh al-Asl, who was reportedly killed in the West Bank village of Nu’eima, not far from Jericho.
The escalation in hostilities comes less than a week from the one-year anniversary of the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.
