Seven injured in Tel Aviv ‘car-ramming and stabbing attack’ – live

A suspected Palestinian car-ramming and stabbing attack injured at least seven people in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, police have confirmed.

A medical official said the incident appeared to have included at least one stabbing victim, and that a suspected assailant had been “neutralised” by first-responders.

Initial reports said the number of people injured was 10.

We’ll have more on this breaking story as it comes in.

Israeli police have issued a statement with more details of the car-ramming attack in Tel Aviv.

Officers said the suspect was driving a vehicle travelling from south to north on Pinchas Rosen Street in Tel Aviv.

He then “rammed into pedestrians standing in the shopping centre and proceeded to get out of the vehicle to stab civilians with a sharp object”.

The victims were taken to the Beilinson and Ichilov hospitals, according to medical officials.

Members of Israeli security and emergency personnel work at the site of a reported car-ramming attack in Tel Aviv on July 4, 2023.

The suspected attack has resulted in injuries police and medics said, on the second day of a major Israeli army operation in the occupied West Bank.

Initial reports said 10 people had been injured. This has since been revised down to six.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas has praised the car-ramming attack, describing it as “heroic”.

Spokesman Muhammad Hamadeh said in a statement the attack in Tel Aviv was part of “a natural response to the ongoing massacre of our people, and a legitimate self-defence against the [Israeli] occupation’s violation of all human norms”.

“The occupier must prepare to count his dead and injured, for the blood of our children is not cheap,” the statement added.

One of the victims in the car-ramming attack is in a serious condition, authorities in Israel say.

Israel’s emergency medical service also said two people are in a moderate condition and one person is in a mild condition.

Reports say the alleged attacker was shot and killed at the scene.

A medical charity treating injured Palestinian has said it is “nearly impossible” for ambulances to reach those needing treatment after Israeli military bulldozers “destroyed multiple roads” leading to the Jenin refugee camp.

“As a result, during the raid, Palestinian paramedics have been forced to proceed on foot in an area with active gunfire and drone strikes,” Médecins Sans Frontières said in a statement.

“All roads leading to the refugee camp have been blocked for the duration of the military operation despite the presence of patients in need of care inside.”

Three children are among ten people killed during an Israeli military operation in the Jenin, the United Nations has said.

UN  aid agencies on Tuesday also voiced alarm at the scale of the ongoing operation in the West Bank town of Jenin, where ten Palestinians have been killed, and said there were restrictions on medical access.

“We are alarmed at the scale of air and ground operations that are taking place in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, and airstrikes hitting a densely populated refugee camp,” Vanessa Huguenin, a spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office, told a briefing.

She said three children were among those killed, without providing details.

“First responders have been prevented from entering the (Jenin) refugee camp, including to reach persons who have been critically injured,” said WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier, referring to restrictions put in place by Israeli forces.

Israel is close to completing its Jenin operation, a senior aide to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday after the fiercest fighting in Jenin refugee camp forced thousands of Palestinians to flee.

The operation “is close to completing the achievement of the goals set”, Israeli nationals security adviser Tzachi Hanebi told Kan radio after a relative lull in the clashes overnight.

Brig Gen Daniel Hagari on Tuesday said that the military’s massive operation in Jenin could end faster than initially expected.

The military had preselected some dozens of targets to eliminate in terms of terror command centers and weapons and explosives storage areas, the spokesperson said, according to The Jerusalem Post.

An Israeli military operation in Jenin that has killed at least 10 Palestinians is close to finishing, a senior official has suggested.

The operation “is close to completing the achievement of the goals set,” Israeli national security adviser Tzachi Hanebi told Kan radio after a relative lull in the clashes overnight.

The large-scale raid of the Jenin camp, which began Monday, is one of the most intense military operation in the occupied West Bank in nearly two decades.

It bore hallmarks of Israeli military tactics during the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s and came as prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces growing pressure from his ultranationalist political allies for a tough response to recent attacks on Israeli settlers, including a shooting last month that killed four people.

Journalists reporting on the military operation in the occupied West Bank say they were “directly” fired upon by Israeli forces.

Video of the incident appears to show soldiers shooting at a camera and transmitter set up by al-Araby TV reporter Amid Shehadeh and video journalist Rabi Munir, setting the equipment ablaze, Wafa news agency reported.

Shehadeh said the troops “directly targeted” him and his colleague with more than six bullets fired.

Al Araby TV Network in a statement condemned the use of any kind of force against journalists.

“We call on all colleagues, as well human rights and media organizations, to join us in expressing their unequivocal rejection of these practices and their full support for freedom of the press and the absolute necessity of guaranteeing the safety of journalists,” said Al Araby TV Network.