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Edited by: TJVNews.com

A Hamas terrorist rammed his car into a crowded northern Tel Aviv bus stop on Tuesday and began stabbing people, wounding eight in an attack that Palestinian terror groups said was revenge for an Israeli military offensive in the Arab terror enclave of Jenin on Monday, the AP reported.

Tuesday’s attack came a day after a terrorist stabbing attack in the nearby city of Bnei Brak, World Israel News reported. A 14-year-old Palestinian Arab stabbed an Israeli man. The victim was evacuated in moderate condition to Maayanei Hayeshua Medical Center in the city.

The attack occurred on Pinchas Rosen Street in the Ramat HaHayal neighborhood at approximately 1:00 p.m. local time, when a terrorist drove his car onto a sidewalk, slamming into a group of pedestrians standing at a bus stop. WIN reported that the terrorist then exited the vehicle and stabbed several pedestrians, including one person who was stabbed in the throat.

During the attack, an armed civilian opened fire on the terrorist, killing him.

“A terrorist carried out combination ramming and stabbing attack in north Tel Aviv,” police spokesperson Eli Levy told Galei Tzahal Radio Tuesday afternoon, before the list of victims was updated to seven, as was reported by WIN. “There are six victims with various levels of injuries at the scene. The terrorist was shot and eliminated by a civilian.”

Magen David Adom (MDA) and United Hatzalah emergency first responders were dispatched to the scene to treat the injured and evacuate them to Ichilov Medical Center. “According to passersby, the car crashed into the bus stop and gunshots were heard,” United Hatzalah volunteer EMTs Yossi Ackler and Dvir Adani said, according to the report on the World Israel News web site on Tuesday.

“With the assistance of a United Hatzalah ambulance team, we provided initial treatment to the injured, who were then transported to the hospital. Due to the nature of the incident, United Hatzalah’s Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit treated a number of people at the scene for emotional shock.”

WIN also reported that the eight victims include a 46-year-old woman who is listed in serious condition, with two more of the victims also listed in serious condition. Two additional victims are in moderate condition, with three victims listed in light condition.

The terrorist has been identified as 23-year-old Hassin Khalilah, a resident of the Palestinian Authority-administered town of As-Samu in the Mount Hebron region of Judea, WIN reported.

Israeli authorities say that Khalilah crossed the border with a valid entry permit, issued for medical purposes. WIN also reported that Khalilah was receiving treatment for a terminal illness.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, rushed to the scene of Tuesday’s attack in Tel Aviv, the AP reported.

“We knew that terror would raise its head,” he said. He praised the person who killed the attacker and called for arming more citizens with guns, as he was heckled by an angry onlooker, the report indicated.

The AP reported that the Islamic terror group Hamas praised Khalilah as a “martyr fighter” and called the ramming “heroic and revenge for the military operation in Jenin.” Islamic Jihad, a terror group with a large presence in Jenin, also praised the assault.

It was not immediately clear if the man was dispatched by Hamas or acted on his own, the AP reported.

In related developments, WIN reported that the Israeli army’s counter-terror raid in Jenin, dubbed Operation Home and Garden, continued into its second day on Tuesday.

The operation is the largest since the Second Intifada, with some 120 Palestinians wanted on terror charges having been detained by the IDF.

WIN also reported that around 300 improvised explosive devices were seized by troops, along with illegal firearms, ammunition, and other weapons that could be used for terror attacks. At least 10 Palestinian terrorists have been killed in clashes with troops since the operation began in the early hours of Monday morning, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, as was reported by WIN.

According to IDF Chief Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Daniel Hagari, the operation is proceeding on schedule and may end within a matter of days. As was indicated in the WIN report, Hagari told Hebrew-language media that most of the targets in the IDF’s crosshairs, including weapons storage sites, bomb-making factories, and spaces used as “command centers” for planning and executing terror attacks, were destroyed on the first day of the raid.

Some of those targets were struck aerially by IDF drones, a departure from usual Israeli army operating procedure in Palestinian Authority-controlled enclaves in Judea and Samaria. Usually, counter-terror raids in the area are carried out via ground troops in armored vehicles, according to the WIN report.

Ground troops are actively participating in the ongoing raid, with widespread gun battles between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian terrorists throughout Jenin. “We began this operation with a tactical surprise – we added aerial attacks, and that allowed us to surprise them. Right now, we are moving within the camp,” Hagari told Radio 103 FM, as was reported by WIN.

“There is [ongoing] fighting, but we are still preparing for additional significant battles.”

During a situational assessment late Monday afternoon, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stressed that “the forces in the field have full freedom of action to operate.” WIN reported that he added that “in the last few hours we dealt a heavy blow to the terrorist organizations in Jenin and managed to record impressive operational achievements.”

The AP reported on Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated the operation in the Jenin refugee camp, was winding down but he gave no details on when it would end and vowed to carry out similar operations in the future.

“At these moments we are completing the mission, and I can say that our extensive operation in Jenin is not a one-off,” Netanyahu said during a visit to a military post on the outskirts of Jenin, the AP report said. “We will continue as long as necessary to cut out terrorism.”

The Israeli military said Tuesday afternoon that fewer than 10 targets remained in the camp and that it hoped to complete the operation within 24 hours, as was reported by the AP.

Palestinian terror attacks targeting Israelis have killed at least 25 people this year alone, including a shooting last month that killed four Jewish settlers.

With airstrikes and a large presence of ground troops, the raid bore hallmarks of Israeli military tactics during the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s, the AP report indicated.

But the current violence is also different from the intense years of what was known as the second intifada, a period that claimed thousands of lives. It’s more limited in scope, with Israeli military operations focused on several strongholds of Palestinian terrorists.

The AP reported that international reaction to the IDF operation in Jenin has been quite vocal. At a news conference in Ankara with his Jordanian counterpart, Turkey’s new foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, called on Israeli authorities “to exercise common sense” and refrain from attacks.

In Berlin, Germany’s Foreign Ministry condemned the Tel Aviv attack, but also expressed concern about the situation in Judea and Samaria. It called on Israel to ensure the safety of civilians and maintain access for humanitarian aid, the AP report said.

WIN also reported that the Hamas terror group issued a call for Palestinians to join the “resistance” in Jenin following a large-scale anti-terrorism operation by the IDF in the Palestinian city, while other terrorists based in the Gaza Strip threatened to launch rockets at Israeli cities.

Hours after Israel initiated the campaign, their largest offensive in the West Bank in approximately two decades, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh issued a statement, “Our people and their resistance everywhere know how to respond to this barbaric aggression,” as was reported by World Israel News.

Hamas official Mushir al-Masri addressed Jenin-based terrorists during a rally in Gaza, saying: “Our missiles are next to your guns, and we will not leave you alone.”

WIN reported that some 1,000 IDF troops are involved in the operation against Jenin, which has become a hotbed of terror.

According to Palestinian health officials, 8 Palestinians have died in the operation.

Haniyeh urged, “We call on our people throughout the West Bank [Judea and Samaria] to stand by Jenin and defend its people in order to thwart the enemy’s plan,” as was indicated in the WIN report.

“The blood being shed in Jenin will determine the nature of the next stage in all directions,” he said.

Deputy head of the political bureau of Hamas, Saleh al-Arouri, encouraged Palestinians in Judea and Samaria to participate in the Jenin conflict, WIN reported. He stated, “We are ready to sacrifice our lives, and the enemy’s threats do not scare us. We will hit the enemy at the time and place of our choosing, and by any means, whether with stones, bullets or rockets, like the Kassam that was launched a few days ago from Jenin.”

Ziad Nakhleh, a Senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader, labeled the IDF operation in Jenin as a “massacre”, and announced that the Gaza-based, Iran-backed terror group will retaliate, according to the WIN report. “What is happening in Jenin is a massacre by the enemy against the Palestinian people,” Nakhleh said according to a translation of his remarks by The Times of Israel.

Despite the rhetoric, there has been no rocket fire from Gaza until now and Israeli reports said Hamas is intentionally keeping Gaza, which it rules, out of the conflict and has even prevented rocket fire multiple times since the launch of the operation in Jenin.

WIN also reported that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas demanded that Palestinian leaders urgently meet to discuss the operation in Jenin, as reported by the official Wafa news agency.

Spokesperson for Abbas, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, termed the operation as a “war crime” against “our defenseless people.”

Nabil Abu Rudeineh called on the international community “to break its shameful silence and take serious action to compel Israel to stop its aggression against our Palestinian people, and to hold it accountable for all these crimes,” as was reported by WIN.

Jordan also issued a condemnation of the “Israeli aggression” in Jenin, and has urged the international community to apply pressure on Israel to halt the operation before the situation “explodes.”

The Palestinian Authority (PA) announced Monday evening that it was immediately ceasing all security coordination with Israel due to the IDF’s anti-terror Operation Home and Garden in Jenin that began that morning, which it deemed a “massacre ”as was reported by WIN.

“There is no more security coordination with the occupation government,” said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas, after an emergency meeting was convened in the PA capital, Ramallah, WIN reported.  “The leadership has decided to go to the [UN] Security Council to implement the decision to protect the Palestinian people, [and] approach the International Court of Justice to add a case on the massacre in Jenin.”

Earlier in the day, Abu Rudeineh had termed the operation a “war crime” against “our defenseless people.” WIN also reported that Abbas had called for international sanctions on Israel and an immediate halt to the “terror aggression” on Jenin.

Ironically, the United States Department of State had put out a statement in the evening saying, “Today’s events further underscore the urgent need for Israeli and Palestinian security forces to work together to improve the security situation in the West Bank,” as was reported by WIN.

The U.S. had also reaffirmed Israel’s “right to defend its people against Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist groups,” while urging Jerusalem to “take all possible precautions to prevent the loss of civilian lives.”

Israel’s unified messaging about the Jenin operation has emphasized that it is not aimed at the PA, which officially controls Jenin, one of the largest cities in its territory, but whose security forces have not been able to stop local Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists from escalating their attacks on Jewish drivers and settlements in Judea and Samaria over the last several months, according to the WIN report.

Jenin has been the source of hundreds of shootings, firebombings and rock-throwing incidents that have recently claimed the lives of several Israelis, and the regional council heads have sharply criticized the government for abandoning its citizens to the constant terror.

In an op-ed piece that appeared on Tuesday, internationally renowned columnist Caroline Glick noted that, “ Over the past year-and-a-half, due to the policies of the previous government and to IDF support for those policies, the area has become a mini-Gaza.  In September 2021, in conjunction with then-Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Central Command head Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fuchs ordered a five-month moratorium on IDF operations in Jenin, in the interest of “strengthening the Palestinian Authority.”

She further stated that, “The current operation then is geared towards repairing the damage caused by the policies of the previous government and Central Command. As IDF Spokesman R. Adm. Daniel Hagari explained Monday morning in a spate of television and radio interviews, the purpose of the operation is not to seize control over Jenin or parts of the city. It is not directed against the PA. It is meant simply to regain the tactical advantage and degrade the capabilities of the terror groups operating in the refugee camp.

As a limited, tactical engagement, the operation has limited, but important, potential. Over the past several weeks, the Palestinians have shot four rudimentary rockets at Israeli communities from Jenin. Although military experts insist these were mere pop guns, the missile industry in Gaza began the same way in 2000. Today, missiles from Gaza have ranges that cover most of the country. The operation in Jenin can destroy all the rocket workshops and kill or arrest all of the terrorist operatives engaged in the development of the rocket program.

The operation in Jenin can also disrupt and degrade the Palestinian terror capacity by killing and capturing the terror commanders and foot soldiers who together have been carrying out shooting, stoning, roadside bomb and pipe bomb attacks against Israelis throughout the region. These attacks have made life a crap shoot for tens of thousands of Israeli citizens who live and work in the communities in northern Samaria and the Binyamin region. “

(Sources: AP.com, worldisraelnews.com) – (Additional reporting by: Fern Sidman)