Palestinian Terrorist Atrocities, Israeli Victims

"The Tel Aviv operation is a clear message to the occupation that it must stop its incursions into al-Aqsa Mosque."

"[Additional] incursions [into al-Aqsa could result in] more resistance and ransom operations.”

Palestinian Islamic Jihad

 

"[This is a] natural and legitimate response to the escalation of the occupation’s crimes against our people, our land, Jerusalem and al-Aqsa Mosque."

"[We will] not allow [the] continuation of the occupation’s terrorism and crimes, and its attempts to Judaize Jerusalem, and to make sacrifices in the courtyards of al-Aqsa Mosque to build their alleged temple, on the so-called Passover holiday."

Hamas

"The entire nation of Israel mourns the grief of the families of those killed and prays for the health of the wounded."

"Our war on murderous terrorism is long and hard. We will win."

"Every murderer will know that we'll get to him, and anyone who helps terrorists should know that the price he will pay will be unbearable."

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett

Members of Israeli Zaka Rescue and Recovery team clean blood from the site of a shooting attack In Tel Aviv on Thursday. Ariel Schalit/AP

There is shock and horror in Israel that in less than two weeks, and during the Islamic holy celebration of Ramadan, fourteen Israelis have been murdered by Palestinian terrorists devoted to the 'resistance' against the 'occupier'. Without the vigilance of the Israeli military and its police, forced to forever be alert to the presence of Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, and others from the West Bank, the slaughter of Jews and incidentally non-Jewish civilians would be significantly higher in number. Without the protective device of a wall separating Israel from the territories the death toll was steeper. 

 

The latest lone-wolf terrorist attack celebrated by known Palestinian terrorist groups but not officially affiliated with them has been widely celebrated with social media postings of videos of people exulting over Jewish lives taken in murderous attacks, in Ramallah, Jenin, Gaza and Lebanon. Car horns beeping, and sweets being handed out in honour of the killings by a 29-year-old resident of Jenin, a hotbed of terrorist activity. In Jenin, the father and the uncle of the terrorist spoke proudly of son/nephew's prowess as a killer of Jews. 

Israeli security forces search for assailants near the scene of a shooting attack in Tel Aviv, on Thursday. Ariel Schalit/AP

On Thursday evening, Israelis went to their places of relaxation and social gathering in the heart of Tel Aviv, an area long known for its bars and restaurants and shops. None would have imagined that a man with murder in his heart, a man whose father and uncle were high-ranking members of the PLO and who himself was involved with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine had infiltrated Israel and was on his way to carrying out a brutal attack.

A burst of gunfire instantly alerting the crowds on Dizengoff Street to the lethal presence of an attacker. A terrorist whose initial victims were two young men, close friends out for an evening of relaxed enjoyment together. And they died together: Eytam Agini, 27 and Tomer Morad, 28. They would be joined in death the following day when 35-year-old father-of-three Barak Lufan succumbed to his wounds. Up to ten others wounded and hospitalized, some with serious injuries.

Barak Lufan, Eytam Magini, Tomer Morad

The killer, who surreptitiously entered Israel, driven from the northern West Bank's Jenin, stopped in Jaffa nearby Tel Aviv to pray at a mosque there before entering Tel Aviv a short distance away. Although security forces quickly arrived at the scene, the killer fled into a densely inhabited area not far from the carnage he had caused, Security personnel shouted for people to seek shelter and there was an immediate general lockdown of the central city where residents were told to lock their doors and stay away from windows.

Barricades were quickly put up everywhere, municipal and military police hunted for the killer in central Tel Aviv, entering apartments, house-to-house in a desperate bid to search out the killer before more people were shot. The gunman, 28-year-old Ra'ad Hazem, guaranteed celebrity status to be worshiped as a hero, would not be found until Friday. He had returned to Jaffa and was found close to the same mosque, where a shoot-out resulted and he was killed.

Outside his family's home in Jenin, his father praised his son's actions to the applause of the gathered crowd, proud and approving of his son's dedication to 'resistance' and his successful massacre of Jews. Although PA President Mahmoud Abbas made a show of condemning violence against civilians, he will no doubt nominate this killer as a national hero in whose honour a street or a bridge or a community centre will be named. And 'pay to slay' will result.

For a brief, infamous moment, this terrorist, son of terrorists, succeeded in instilling terror into the minds and hearts of innocent people in a Jewish city within a Jewish state. His goal succeeded, he made his mark, he murdered the innocent and felt the triumph of playing out his imagination's ultimate act of mass murder as a soldier in the army of Islamic jihad.

A Palestinian man displays a picture of his nephew Raad Hazem, 28, a Palestinian gunman who had killed two people and wounded several others in Tel Aviv the previous night, on April 8, 2022 in the West Bank city of Jenin. (credit: JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP via Getty Images)