Three Israelis were killed and more than 20 injured in several Palestinian-led terror attacks in Jerusalem and Ra'anana on Tuesday in what was termed a "day of rage."
The two attackers entered an Egged bus and started shooting and stabbing passengers. Two people died and several others were injured. A security guard at the scene was able to overpower one of the terrorists and shoot him. The terrorist then tried to get up and resume his attack, but the security guard shot him again.
Almost simultaneously, there was another stabbing attack in a different part of the Israeli capital when a Palestinian atacker rammed his car into a bus stop, then began stabbing pedestrians, killing at least one and wounding others.
A source in the Israeli security establishment told the 'Jerusalem Post' that the two terrorist attacks seemed to be "a planned and timed assault."
On Monday, six people were wounded in three separate stabbing attacks in the Israeli capital, and on Sunday, four Israelis were stabbed by an Israeli Arab in northern Israel. Hours before, a police officer had been wounded when a Palestinian driver detonated a bomb at a checkpoint on the route from Jerusalem to the West Bank settlement of Ma'ale Adumim.
Two stabbing attacks in Ra'anana
On Tuesday morning, a Palestinian attacker stabbed and wounded an Israeli on a shopping street in Ra’anana, near Tel Aviv, before being apprehended by locals.
Another knife-wielding attacker struck in the same city just a few hours later, hurting four people. According to initial reports, the assailant, a resident of East Jerusalem, took out a knife and began stabbing people in front of Loewenstein Hospital. A shopkeeper said he had heard shouting, grabbed a heavy wooden umbrella, and ran outside to confront the assailant. "He started stabbing the guy. I hit him a couple of times and kicked him and the knife flew out of his hand," the store owner said.
In Netanya, Jewish Israeli was lightly wounded after being attacked by another Jewish man. According to reports, he became the victim of a failed revenge attack as the attacked assumed he was an Arab because of his Middle-Eastern appearance.
Israel police also confirmed an additional stabbing attack took place Tuesday in Kiryat Ata, near Haifa.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu covened an emergency session of his Security Cabinet in Jerusalem after the recent wave of attacks. Since Rosh Hashana last month, seven Israelis have been killed and several dozen wounded in a series of shootings and stabbings, as the Palestinian unrest continues to mount.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said he had asked the government to impose a closure on Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods: "We shouldn't allow them to enter [...] the lives of the residents of Jerusalem are more important than anything else."
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said the Palestinian Authority had turned into an “incubator for fanatic terrorism." She added that Israel should consider halting its monthly financial transfers to the Palestinians. "The blood of Israeli citizens is on the hands of Mahmoud Abbas and his colleagues who are inciting children to commit murder,” she sai, referring to an Abbas spokesman "praising and glorifying at 13-year-old Palestinian who set out with a butcher knife to murder Israeli children in a candy shop.” The deputy foreign minister was referring to Monday's attack in Jerusalem's Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhood.
Meanwhile, Hamas in Gaza praised the attacks, calling them "a message to anyone who harms our holy places. We call to continue the intifada, which is the natural response to the world's silence."
