BNEI BRAK ISRAEL: Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned of a “wave of murderous Arab terrorism” ahead of funerals Wednesday for two of five people killed in a Palestinian shooting rampage in central Israel.
The shooting of four civilians and a police officer in Bnei Brak, an ultra-religious city near Tel Aviv, was the third fatal attack in the Jewish state in the past week.
“Diaa Armashah, 27, a Palestinian from the West Bank village of Yabad, arrived at Jabotinsky Street in Bnei Brak armed with an M-16 assault rifle,” Israeli police said.
Advancing to a nearby street, he shot dead two Ukrainian nationals aged 32 and 23, and then killed two Israelis before being confronted by police, with one of the officers dying in a gunfight that ensued, they added.
Bennett, who heads a disparate coalition government ranging from Jewish nationalists to Arabs, said Israel was “facing a wave of murderous Arab terrorism”.
The premier will convene an emergency meeting with top security officials on Wednesday to review the situation.
Police said its forces were put on the highest level of alert, and the army said it would deploy extra units in and around the West Bank.
Tuesday’s shooting brings to 11 the overall number of deaths from attacks in Israel over the past week, excluding perpetrators.
The latest were identified as Yaakov Shalom, 36, and Avishai Yehezkel, 29, both ultra-Orthodox residents of Bnei Brak, and Amir Khoury, 32, an Arab Christian policeman from Nof Hagalil.
The two slain Ukrainians have yet to be named, with the Ukrainian embassy in Israel confirming their nationality and condemning the “heinous terrorist attacks”.
Israel is home to around 15,000 Ukrainian nationals, but since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, it has received nearly 20,000 refugees from Ukraine, an interior ministry spokeswoman said.
A Ukrainian diplomatic source told AFP they were seasonal workers who had been in Israel for a number of years, rather than war refugees.
