Nine Israelis were wounded on Tuesday in a combined car-ramming and stabbing attack in Tel Aviv just hours before Israel ended its military operation in the West Bank Jenin refugee camp.
Five of the wounded were reported to be in serious condition, including a pregnant woman who lost her baby.
A 21-year-old Palestinian from a village near the West Bank city of Hebron rammed his pick-up truck at high speed into a group of Israelis at a bus stop in central Tel Aviv. He then exited the vehicle and stabbed people before he was shot and killed by an armed civilian.
Israel named the assailant as Abed Halaila. He managed to enter Israel without a permit, acted alone and had no known links with militant groups.
Hamas spokespman Hazem Qassem praised the attack. “The heroic attack in Tel Aviv is the first response to the occupation’s crimes against our people in Jenin,” he said in reference to the Israeli military’s two-day operation.
Khaled Al-Batsh, a senior official from Islamic Jihad, also praised the attack as “an initial and natural response of the resistance to what is happening in Jenin”.
The massive military operation in the Jenin refugee camp, which began in the early hours of Monday, ended on Tuesday night. Heavy exchanges of fire were reported just before the soldiers left the camp.
Senior generals and intelligence officials had argued that now was the time to leave the camp after securing military successes with no soldiers being hurt.
There were signs of widespread devastation throughout the Jenin camp on Monday similar to areas hit by an earthquake: shells of uninhabitable buildings and roads destroyed.
At least 10 Palestinians were killed — Israel claims they were all militants. Some 130 fugitives were detained but the Israeli military believes that about 200 Palestinian gunmen managed to flee the camp after realising that further resistance would be pointless.
More than 100 Palestinians, militants and civilians, were wounded, including 20 who were in a serious condition.
“We are taking the initiative, surprising, changing, renewing and establishing a new equation vis-a-vis the terrorists,” said prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu. “Our principle is simple: anyone who murders Israelis belongs either in prison or in a grave.”
Jenin mayor Nidal Obeidi said more than 3,000 Palestinian residents were brutally removed from their homes. He said they were told they would die if they did not leave the camp. Mr Obeidi said the elderly, the sick and children were included in the expulsions. The Israeli military says it permitted civilians to depart as a humanitarian gesture.
[ Jenin: a martyrs’ capital and a hornets’ nestOpens in new window ]
[ At least nine Palestinians killed as Israel raids JeninOpens in new window ]
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas called on the United Nations and the international community to force Israel to stop what he called the expulsion of residents.
UN secretary general António Guterres expressed concern about the operation and said that in any military operation, the parties needed to obey the absolute letter of international law.
A partial general strike took place in the West Bank on Tuesday in solidarity with the residents of Jenin and there were isolated incidents of unrest, including in east Jerusalem.
Washington called on the Palestinian Authority to renew its co-operation with Israel, which it suspended to protest against the operation.
