Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Friday that he was calling up all reserve forces in Israel's Border Police, a paramilitary force usually deployed to suppress Palestinian unrest in the wake of the spate of terrorist attacks in recent days.
The additional border police were to be activated Sunday and join other units that have recently been deployed in Jerusalem and Lod, a town in central Israel with a mixed Jewish and Arab population.
Israel had unleashed rare airstrikes on Lebanon and bombarded the Gaza Strip on Friday morning, but later in the day there were signs that both sides were trying to keep the border hostilities in check. The fighting subsided after dawn, and midday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem – a flashpoint for violence in recent days – passed peacefully.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
In the Tel Aviv car-ramming late Friday, the alleged attacker rammed his vehicle into a group of civilians near a popular seaside park, police said. Israel's rescue service said a 30-year-old Italian man was killed, while five other British and Italian tourists – including a 74-year-old man and a 17-year-old girl – were receiving medical treatment for mild to moderate injuries.
Police said they shot and killed the driver of the car and identified him as a 45-year-old Arab citizen of Israel from the village of Kafr Qassem.
A video circulating on social media showed the car hurtling along a sidewalk for several hundred yards (meters) before crashing out of control.
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni's office expressed "closeness to the family of the victim" and "solidarity with Israel for the vile attack." She identified the man killed as Alessandro Parini from Rome.
The shooting in the West Bank meanwhile killed the two sisters, who were in their 20s, and seriously wounded their 45-year-old mother near an Israeli settlement in the Jordan Valley, Israeli and British officials said. The family lived in the Efrat, near the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, said Oded Revivi, the settlement's mayor.
Medics said they dragged the unconscious women from their smashed car, which appeared to have been pushed off the road. No groups claimed responsibility for either attack. But the Hamas militant group that rules Gaza praised both incidents as retaliation for Israeli raids earlier this week on the Al-Aqsa mosque – the third-holiest site in Islam. On Tuesday, police arrested and beat hundreds of Palestinians there, who responded by hurling rocks and firecrackers at officers.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
