Israel-Palestinian violence: Eight casualties in ‘Palestinian car-ramming and stabbing attack’ in Tel Aviv
At least eight casualties have been reported in what is believed to be a car-ramming and stabbing attack by Palestinians at a crowded bus stop in Israel.
There was at least one stabbing victim and a suspected attacker had been “neutralised” by first responders in the attack in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.
A medic told a local radio station the 20-year-old suspect had been shot dead. At least three of those injured are said to be in a “serious” condition, according to local police.
Images and video from the scene showed a pick-up truck that had mounted a pavement near a mall and crashed into a crowded bus stop.
“[The suspect] proceeded to get out of the vehicle to stab civilians with a sharp object,” police said.
Khaled Al-Batsh, a senior official from the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad movement praised the attack as “an initial and natural response of the resistance towards what is happening in Jenin”.
The aftermath of the car-ramming attack Pic: Resistance News Network
Emergency services attending to casualties Pic: Resistance News Network
Tel Aviv’s police chief said the suspect in the attack was a Palestinian man from the West Bank. Hamas claimed the man was a member and the attack was retaliation for an Israeli raid on a refugee camp.
Israeli’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, said the man had no prior security record, while Yaakov Shabtai, the police chief, said that several people connected to the man were arrested, but did not provide details
A spokesperson for the Magen David Adom ambulance service said some of those injured had knife wounds.
Three children were among the 10 killed after the raid by Israeli forces on the refugee camp in the Palestinian city of Jenin, the UN humanitarian office has said.
The World Health Organisation said that first responders have been prevented from entering the camps to treat those who have been injured.
Thousands of people have fled the camp in the occupied West Bank after Israel launched its deadly military operation on Monday.
Dozens have been wounded in the operation which saw Israel carry out a wave of drone strikes and send in hundreds of troops.
Israeli troops were pressing ahead with their hunt for Palestinian militants and weapons on Tuesday, after military bulldozers tore through alleys.
Several cities in the West Bank have reportedly declared a general strike for Tuesday in solidarity with Palestinians in the Jenin camp, which had been home to around 14,000 people.
“We are alarmed at the scale of air and ground operations that are taking place in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, and airstrikes hitting a densely populated refugee camp,” Vanessa Huguenin, a spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office, said.
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Gunshots heard in West Bank city of Jenin
It is Israel’s most intense military operation in the West Bank in nearly 20 years and is reminiscent of its military tactics during the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s.
The operation comes at a time of growing domestic pressure for a tough response to recent attacks on Israeli settlers, including a shooting last month that killed four Israelis.
Smoke rises into the sky following the raid on Jenin
Airstrikes started at 1.14am on Monday using armed drones and destroyed a target in the centre of Jenin’s refugee camp, close to UN-funded schools.
Israel described it as a joint operations centre “used as an advanced observation and reconnaissance centre, a place where armed terrorists would gather before and after terrorist activities, a site for armament of weapons and explosives, and as a hub for co-ordination and communication among the terrorists”.
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The airstrikes started at 1.14am on Monday using armed drones and destroyed a target in the centre of Jenin’s refugee camp.
A senior aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel was close to completing its Jenin operation.
The Islamic Jihad faction claimed four of the dead as its fighters. Hamas, another Islamist faction, claimed a fifth. It was not immediately clear if the other five fatalities – males aged 17 to 23 – were combatants or civilians.
The Israeli military said it had confirmation of nine Palestinians killed by its forces. All were combatants, it said.
Offices and businesses across the occupied West Bank were expected to close on Tuesday in response to calls for a general strike to protest the operation, which the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas has described as a “war crime”.
US president-elect Donald Trump has suggested Israel and Hamas could agree a Gaza ceasefire by the end of the week.
Talks between Israeli and Hamas representatives resumed in the Qatari capital Doha yesterday, after US President Joe Biden indicated a deal to stop the fighting was “on the brink” on Monday.
A draft agreement has been sent to both sides. It includes provisions for the release of hostages and a phased Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza.
Qatar says Israel and Hamas are at their “closest point” yet to a ceasefire deal.
Two Hamas officials said the group has accepted the draft agreement, with Israel still considering the deal.
An Israeli official said a deal is close but “we are not there” yet.
More than 46,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its ground offensive in the aftermath of the 7 October attacks, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Read more:
What’s in the proposed deal?
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on beachfront cafe in Deir al Balah. Pic: Reuters
Biden hails possibility of agreement
President Biden said it would include a hostage release deal and a “surge” of aid to Palestinians, in his final foreign policy speech as president.
“So many innocent people have been killed, so many communities have been destroyed. Palestinian people deserve peace,” he said.
“The deal would free the hostages, halt the fighting, provide security to Israel, and allow us to significantly surge humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians who suffered terribly in this war that Hamas started.”
Qatari mediators have sent Israel and Hamas a draft proposal for an agreement to halt the fighting.
Analysis:
Deal might be close, but there are many unanswered questions
Pic: Reuters
Trump: ‘We’re very close’
President-elect Donald Trump has also discussed a possible peace deal during a phone interview with the Newsmax channel.
“We’re very close to getting it done and they have to get it done,” he said.
“If they don’t get it done, there’s going to be a lot of trouble out there, a lot of trouble, like they have never seen before.
“And they will get it done. And I understand there’s been a handshake and they’re getting it finished and maybe by the end of the week. But it has to take place, it has to take place.”
Read more:
Pope Francis honoured by Joe Biden
Donald Trump’s inauguration 2.0
Pic: AP
Israeli official: Former Hamas leader held up deal
Speaking on Tuesday as negotiations resumed in Qatar, an anonymous Israeli official said that an agreement was “close, but we are not there”.
They accused Hamas of previously “dictating, not negotiating” but said this has changed in the last few weeks.
“Yahya Sinwar was the main obstacle for a deal,” they added.
Sinwar, believed to be the mastermind of the 7 October attacks, led Hamas following the assassination of his predecessor but was himself killed in October last year.
Under Sinwar, the Israeli official claimed, Hamas was “not in a rush” to bring a hostage deal but this has changed since his death and since the IDF “started to dismantle the Shia axis”.
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Biden: ‘Never, never, never, ever give up’
Iran ‘weaker than it’s been in decades’
Yesterday, President Biden also hailed Washington’s support for Israel during two Iranian attacks in 2024.
“All told, Iran is weaker than it’s been in decades,” the president said.
Mr Biden claimed America’s adversaries were weaker than when he took office four years ago and that the US was “winning the worldwide competition”.
“Compared to four years ago, America is stronger, our alliances are stronger, our adversaries and competitors are
weaker,” he said.
“We have not gone to war to make these things happen.”
The US president is expected to give a farewell address on Wednesday.
A draft ceasefire deal on the table between Israel and Hamas would see 33 hostages set free and a phased withdrawal of IDF forces from parts of Gaza.
President Joe Biden said an agreement to stop the fighting was “on the brink” and high level negotiations between the two sides resumed in Qatar on Tuesday.
The deal would see a number of things happen in a first stage, with negotiations for the second stage beginning in the third week of the ceasefire.
It would also allow a surge in humanitarian aid into Gaza, which has been devastated by more than a year of war.
Details of what the draft proposal entails have been emerging on Tuesday, reported by Israeli and Palestinian officials.
Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages hold photos of their loved ones during a protest on 8 January. Pic: AP
Hostages to be returned
In the first stage of the potential ceasefire, 33 hostages would be set free.
These include women (including female soldiers), children, men over the age of 50, wounded and sick.
Israel believes most of these hostages are alive but there has not been any official confirmation from Hamas.
In return for the release of the hostages, Israel would free more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
People serving long sentences for deadly attacks would be included in this but Hamas fighters who took part in the 7 October attack would not be released.
An arrangement to prevent Palestinian “terrorists” from going back to the West Bank would be included in the deal, an anonymous Israeli official said.
Read more:
A timeline of events since the 7 October attacks
The hostages who still haven’t returned home
Smoke billows as buildings lie in ruin in Beit Hanoun in Gaza. Pic: Reuters
Phased Israeli withdrawal from Gaza
The agreement also includes a phased withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, with IDF troops remaining in the border perimeter to defend Israeli border towns and villages.
Security arrangements would be implemented at the Philadelphi corridor – a narrow strip of land that runs along the border between Egypt and Gaza – with Israel withdrawing from parts of it after the first few days of the deal.
The Rafah Crossing between Egypt and Gaza would start to work gradually to allow the crossing of people who are sick and other humanitarian cases out of Gaza for treatment.
Unarmed North Gaza residents would be allowed to return to their homes, with a mechanism introduced to ensure no weapons are moved there.
“We will not leave the Gaza Strip until all our hostages are back home,” the Israeli official said.
What will happen to Gaza in the future?
There is less detail about the future of Gaza – from how it will be governed, to any guarantees that this agreement will bring a permanent end to the war.
“The only thing that can answer for now is that we are ready for a ceasefire,” the Israeli official said.
“This is a long ceasefire and the deal that is being discussed right now is for a long one. There is a big price for releasing the hostages and we are ready to pay this price.”
The international community has said Gaza must be run by Palestinians, but there has not been a consensus about how this should be done – and the draft ceasefire agreement does not seem to address this either.
In the past, Israel has said it will not end the war leaving Hamas in power. It also previously rejected the possibility of the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited governing powers in the West Bank, from taking over the administration of Gaza.
Since the beginning of its military campaign in Gaza, Israel has also said it would retain security control over the territory after the fighting ends.
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