Two Israeli civilians were killed and two injured in a stabbing attack in central Israel on Sunday morning, local authorities said.
of The Israel Times Reports The terrorist attacker, a Palestinian from the West Bank, stabbed his victim three times before being shot dead by police officers.
The stabbing happened during the morning rush hour in the city of Holon, near Tel Aviv.
Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir (center) arrives at the scene of a stabbing attack in the southern Tel Aviv suburb of Holon on August 4, 2024. Israel’s emergency medical services said two people were killed and two were injured in the incident, and police reported that the Palestinian suspect had been “neutralized.” (GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP via Getty)
“This was a complex and difficult terrorist attack. The casualties are in three separate locations, approximately 500 metres apart,” Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency services officer said in the report.
Hamas, the Islamist group at war with Israel in Gaza, said in a statement: Seen on Reuters said the stabbing was a “natural reaction” to Israeli attacks on Palestinians and the assassination of the group’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran last week.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the attack on Sunday:
There was a murderous terrorist attack in Holon this morning. My condolences go to the families of those killed and I pray for a speedy recovery for those injured. I commend the police officers who engaged and killed the terrorists. We will take action against anyone who collaborated with the terrorists.
Our fight against terrorism is relentless. I commend the IDF and the Israeli army for their work together yesterday in Tulkarm. Our forces eliminated a terrorist group that was organizing an attack to kill many Israelis, thereby saving many lives.
Israel is waging a multi-front war against the Iranian axis of evil. We are launching a powerful attack on all of Iran’s weapons systems. We are prepared for every scenario, both offensively and defensively.
I reiterate to our enemies: any act of aggression against us, from any quarter, will be responded to and will exact a heavy price.
At the same time, we continue to work hard every day to return all the hostages — and I emphasize that we will return all of them, no exceptions. We are absolutely determined to return all of them, both living and dead.Therefore, I instructed a delegation to depart yesterday for Cairo to continue the negotiations. I will insist on the release of as many surviving hostages as possible in the first phase of an agreement, and maintain leverage to seek the release of all hostages later.
I am prepared to do everything in my power to secure the release of all hostages while maintaining Israel’s security. Our determination stands in stark contrast to the leaks and misrepresentations about the hostage situation.
These briefings have had a negative impact on the negotiations and, very sadly, have also misled the hostage families. They give the false impression that Hamas is in agreement and that the Israeli government is opposed to it.
The truth is quite the opposite. The simple truth is that at this point Hamas has not agreed to the most basic terms of the outline.
We have not made any demands on the outline, but Hamas has demanded dozens of changes. Hamas has not backed down from its demand that Israel cannot rejoin the war.Iran is demanding a withdrawal from the Philadelphia Corridor and the Rafah checkpoint, which are Iran’s lifelines. Withdrawal will allow Iran to rearm and regain its strength. It is important to lay down a principle: we will not withdraw from there.
Hamas also will not accept any mechanisms to monitor and stop the flow of ammunition and terrorists into the northern Gaza Strip. Hamas does all this because it wants to recover and rebuild, and to return again and again to the massacres of October 7th, as it promised.
The fact is that it is Hamas that is blocking the release of the hostages and continues to oppose the outline, not the Israeli government, which accepted the outline.
Those who, like us, want the hostages released need to put pressure on Hamas, not the Israeli government.We will continue to apply military pressure on Hamas and its leaders until all hostages are returned and all war objectives are achieved.
