Two Palestinians armed with axes attacked passersby on Thursday night in the ultra-Orthodox city of Elad, about 10 miles east of Tel Aviv, killing three people and wounding four others. The attack took place as Israel’s 74th Independence Day came to an end.
Israeli police spokesman Eli Levi told reporters that a manhunt for the suspects, who apparently fled in a vehicle, was underway. The police dispatched a helicopter and set up roadblocks to search for the assailants. Elad is about 2 miles west of the Green Line, the 1949 armistice line that separates Israel from the West Bank. Early Friday morning, the police released photographs of the suspects, who they said were residents of the Jenin areas in the northern West Bank.
The victims killed in the attack were named early Friday as Yonatan Havakuk, Boaz Gol, and Oren Ben Yiftah. According to the Magen David Adom emergency medical service, One of the people injured is in critical condition, another suffered serious injuries, and two others are in moderate-to-light condition.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but Hamas praised and justified it as a response to recent unrest at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, which Hamas blames on Israel. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attacked, saying, “The killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians only leads to a further deterioration of the situation.”
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a statement that the “enemies launched a murderous campaign against Jews. … We will lay our hands on the terrorists and their supportive environment, and they will pay the price.”
The Israeli military extended a closure that had been imposed on Tuesday on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, ahead of Israel’s Memorial Day and Independence Day. The close, which was to have been lifted on Friday, will now extend until Sunday “following a security assessment,” with crossings into Israel open only for medical reasons and other special humanitarian circumstances.