Two Palestinian gunmen opened fire Tuesday on a light rail train in Tel Aviv, killing seven people and injuring at least 16 others, the Israeli police and emergency services said.
The police called the attack an act of terrorism and said one of the gunmen was killed on the scene, while the other was severely injured. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the shooting, but the police identified the shooters as Palestinian residents of the West Bank.
The shooting was one of the deadliest attacks by Palestinian militants in Tel Aviv in recent years. It took place as violence intensified across the region: Israeli forces invaded Lebanon overnight, where they have been conducting a series of punishing strikes on the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia.
And shortly after the shooting, Israel’s air defense system began intercepting a swarm of Iranian missiles over Tel Aviv. Loud booms and bright explosions filled the sky as residents sought shelter.
“The police forces are handling the scene under a missile attack,” the police said in a statement about the shooting. “The event is under control.”
The shooting occurred on Jerusalem Boulevard, a major tree-lined thoroughfare and important public transportation route in the city’s Jaffa neighborhood. Israel’s emergency service, Magen David Adom, said it was treating the injured.
Nadav Matzner, a spokesman for the agency, said six of those injured in the attack were severely wounded.
Images broadcast on Israeli television showed two gunmen in street clothes carrying large rifles. Video shared widely online showed injured people lying on the sidewalk on Jerusalem Boulevard.
Videos verified by The New York Times showed the aftermath of the shooting at the Ehrlich light rail station in Jaffa. Three motionless bodies were seen lying on the street. Two armed men were captured earlier in surveillance footage exiting a train at the station.
A bystander’s video captured a gunman firing what appeared to be at least 16 shots at the station. A train pulled out of the station while he fired. Another man walks beside him, though it’s unclear if he’s carrying a firearm.
Eran Nissan, 33, had left his home in Jaffa with his partner to buy groceries in advance of the expected Iranian missile attack. As they stood in line at the checkout, they heard volleys of gunshots begin to ring out.
Mr. Nissan, a trained paramedic who volunteers with Magen David Adom, said he ran across the street to a butcher shop. A young woman lay on the ground with a wounded hand; he began to bind her wound with a tourniquet he had kept in his bag.
More gunshots rang out, this time even closer, Mr. Nissan recalled, leading them to shut and barricade the door.
“Other people were hiding there with us — both Arabs and Jews,” said Mr. Nissan.
After loading the injured woman into an ambulance, he headed home. Almost as soon as arriving, air-raid sirens began to ring out throughout the country, warning of the impending Iranian ballistic missile barrage.
Yosef Kurdi, a medic with Magen David Adom, said in a statement provided by the agency that when he arrived at the scene there were people with gunshot wounds lying near the railroad tracks, outside a nearby kiosk and in a synagogue down the street.
Recent incidents have brought Israel’s conflicts ever closer to Tel Aviv.
The shooting came after several attempted aerial attacks on the city by Iran-backed forces in Lebanon and Yemen, and six weeks after Hamas and Islamic Jihad took responsibility for what the groups said was a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv in August.
The Israeli police did not describe that incident as a suicide bombing, but if so, it would have been the first suicide attack in the city since 2016. At the time of that August attack, Hamas and Islamic Jihad had threatened attacks in response to the “continued civilian displacement and killings” of Palestinians in Gaza.
The shooting on Tuesday took place shortly after Tel Aviv residents had been advised by Israel’s Home Front Command to stay close to bomb shelters and to avoid any unnecessary travel or outdoor activities. The streets of the city were quickly emptied in anticipation of the Iranian missile strike.
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