Israel: At least seven killed in Tel Aviv shooting
At least seven people have been killed and 10 others injured in an attack by two men armed with an assault rifle and a knife at a light rail station in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, local media reported.
Israeli police said the attack happened at 7pm local time (4pm GMT) at the Ehrlich light rail station on Jerusalem Boulevard in Jaffa, southern Tel Aviv, where the man armed with a gun opened fire.
Police said the two men who carried out the attack were subsequently shot dead by a civilian armed with a gun and a security guard. On Wednesday the armed wing of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement from the group.
Police said the attackers were residents of the West Bank, the AFP news agency reported.
Commenting on X, Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's finance minister, said the attackers were from Hebron in the occupied West Bank. He called for the men's families to be "deported to Gaza" and for the demolition of their homes.
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The Haaretz newspaper reported that a military blockade had been imposed on Hebron after the attack.
Israel's national emergency service, the MDA, said paramedics gave medical aid to the wounded people on the site who had varying degree of injuries.
"There are several wounded with varying degrees of injuries," the MDA said.
Unverified footage on social media appeared to show casualties both inside a train carriage and on a station platform. Haaretz reported that the man with the gun had opened fire at people on the platform and passers-by before stepping onto a train and opening fire inside the carriage.
The attack occurred shortly before air raid sirens sounded in the city as Iran launched a wave of ballistic missiles towards Tel Aviv and other locations in Israel.
Tehran said the missiles were fired in response to the killings by Israel of the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander in Lebanon, Abbas Nilforoushan.
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