Israeli paramedics evacuate an injured man on the web site of a Palestinian car-ramming assault at a bus cease in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Tuesday.

Oded Balilty/AP

disguise caption

toggle caption

Oded Balilty/AP

Israeli paramedics evacuate an injured man on the web site of a Palestinian car-ramming assault at a bus cease in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Tuesday.

Oded Balilty/AP

JENIN, West Bank (AP) — A Palestinian man drove his automotive right into a crowded bus cease in Tel Aviv on Tuesday after which started stabbing individuals, wounding eight in an assault praised by the Islamist militant group Hamas as a response to Israel’s ongoing navy operation within the occupied West Bank.

Police chief Kobi Shabtai advised reporters on the scene that an armed civilian shot and killed the assailant.

The assault got here as Israeli troops pressed forward with their hunt for Palestinian militants and weapons in a refugee camp, after navy bulldozers tore by way of alleys and hundreds of residents fled to security. The two-day Palestinian demise toll rose to 10.

The large-scale raid of the Jenin camp, which started Monday, is likely one of the most intense navy operations within the occupied West Bank in practically 20 years.

It bore hallmarks of Israeli navy ways through the second Palestinian rebellion within the early 2000s and got here as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces rising stress from his ultranationalist political allies for a troublesome response to latest assaults on Israeli settlers, together with a capturing final month that killed 4 individuals.

But the present violence can be completely different from the extraordinary years of what was generally known as the second intifada, a interval that claimed hundreds of lives. It’s extra restricted in scope, with Israeli navy operations centered on a number of strongholds of Palestinian militants.

More than 140 Palestinians have been killed this 12 months within the West Bank, a part of greater than a yearlong spike in violence. Palestinian assaults focusing on Israelis have killed no less than 26 individuals.

The Hamas militant group praised Tuesday’s assault in Tel Aviv as “heroic and revenge for the military operation in Jenin” and later claimed the driving force was a member, although it was not instantly clear if the attacker was dispatched by the group or acted on his personal. Islamic Jihad, a militant group with a big presence in Jenin, additionally praised the assault.

Israeli’s inside safety company, the Shin Bet, recognized the attacker as a Palestinian from the West Bank with no prior safety document.

Shabtai, the police chief, stated that a number of individuals related to the person had been arrested however didn’t present particulars.

Earlier within the day, rubble littered the streets of Jenin and there have been studies of injury to outlets. Columns of black smoke periodically punctuated the skyline over the camp, which together with an adjoining city of the identical title has been a flashpoint since Israeli-Palestinian violence started escalating in spring 2022. It was additionally a hotbed of Palestinian militant exercise within the rebellion within the early 2000s.

Jenin Mayor Nidal Al-Obeidi stated that round 4,000 Palestinians had fled the Jenin refugee camp, discovering lodging within the properties of family members and in shelters. Residents stated there was no water or electrical energy within the camp.

Across the West Bank, Palestinians noticed a normal strike to protest the Israeli raid.

The Palestinian Health Ministry stated Tuesday that the two-day demise toll rose to 10, with two extra deaths reported in a single day. The Israeli navy has claimed all had been militants, however didn’t present particulars.

During Tuesday’s operations, the navy stated it seized weapons and explosives and demolished tunnels beneath a mosque within the refugee camp. Israeli media reported that the military had arrested no less than 120 suspected Palestinian militants since Monday.

A spokesman for the Israeli navy, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, stated Monday that Israel had launched the operation as a result of some 50 assaults over the previous 12 months had emanated from Jenin.

The Palestinian self-rule authorities within the West Bank and three Arab nations with normalized ties with Israel – Jordan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates – condemned Israel’s incursion, as did the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Israel says the raids are supposed to crack down on Palestinians militants and thwart assaults. The Palestinians say such violence is inevitable within the absence of any political course of with Israel and elevated West Bank settlement development and violence by extremist settlers.

Israel says most of these killed have been militants, however stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and folks uninvolved in confrontations have additionally died.

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip within the 1967 Mideast warfare. The Palestinians search these territories for his or her hoped-for impartial state.