3 killed in suspected terror attack in Israel city
At least three people killed and four injured in a suspected terror attack within the the central Israeli town of Elad, statements from Israel’s emergency response services suggest so.
Police statement says the incident which took place on Israeli Independence Day, involved two suspected attackers. One with a gun while the other attacked people with an axe or a knife used to kill the people, police said.
Pictures from the scene showed multiple emergency vehicles including ambulances and motorcycles.
Two of the wounded have arrived at Beilinson hospital, the hospital said. One is in critical condition and one in serious condition, it said.
The attack marks the the most recent in a series of violent incidents that have put Israel and the Palestinian territories on edge in recent weeks.
Last month, two people were killed and more than a dozen others were wounded in a shooting at a bar in a busy area of Tel Aviv. And over the course of just one week in March, 11 people were killed several attacks in Israeli towns and cities.
Israel has responded by raiding Palestinian towns, sparking clashes that left at least 26 people dead, including bystanders.
There have also been fierce clashes at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, a flashpoint site that is deeply important to Muslims and Jews, who know it as the Temple Mount.
Local authorities in Elad have ordered residents to stay indoors.
Most of the city’s citizen are members of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.
Israel holds memorial ceremonies each year before Independence Day, marking its wartime losses.
The Jewish state was founded on 14 May 1948, and anniversaries are calculated in accordance with the Hebrew calendar.
On 15 May, Palestinians mark the creation of Israel with a day of mourning called al-Naqba, Arabic for “catastrophe”.
This is a developing story….more to come
