The Israeli emergency response service said at least eight people were killed and several more were injured when two gunmen opened fire on a light rail train in Tel Aviv shortly after residents were urged to seek shelter from an Iranian missile attack.
The police said the gunmen were “neutralized” on the scene, and urged residents of the city to remain calm and follow the directions of the military’s Home Front Command.
Shortly after the shooting, Israel’s air defense system intercepted a swarm of missiles over Tel Aviv. Loud booms and bright explosions filled the sky. “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 took place at a perilous moment in the Middle East. Israel invaded Lebanon on Monday after leading a series of punishing attacks on Hezbollah, the armed Lebanese militia and proxy to Iran.
No group claimed immediate responsibility for the shooting on Tuesday night. The authorities described the shooting as a terrorist attack. Recent incidents have brought Israel’s conflicts creeping ever closer to Tel Aviv, a city that often feels physically and psychologically removed from the violence.
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 agency, Magen David Adom, said it was treating the injured.
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.
The shooting occurred after a series of attempted aerial attacks on Tel Aviv by Iran-backed forces in Lebanon and Yemen, and six weeks after Hamas and Islamic Jihad took responsibility for what they said was a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
The Israeli police did not describe that incident as a suicide bombing, but if it were it would have been the first suicide attack in the city since 2016. At that time, Hamas and Islamic Jihad had threatened attacks in response to the “continued civilian displacement and killings” of Palestinians.
The shooting on Tuesday took place shortly after Tel Aviv residents were advised by Israel’s home front command to stay close to bomb shelters and avoid any unnecessary travel or outdoor activities. The streets of the city were quickly emptied.
Not long after the shooting, the air raid sirens of Israel’s air defense system began to sound across Tel Aviv, sending residents fleeing for shelters.
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