The Times of Israel liveblogged Saturday’s events as they happened.
A number of coalition lawmakers attack the head of the Shin Bet for reportedly warning that terrorist acts by Jewish Israelis are fueling Palestinian terrorism, saying “ideas of the left have reached the top” of the security agency and that senior defense officials do not know how to “distinguish between the enemy and your people,” prompting Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to come to the defense of Ronen Bar.
“Thanks to the members of the Shin Bet and their leader, who operate far from the public eye, the lives of Israeli citizens are saved every day,” Gallant says in a statement.
“I strongly condemn the statements of Knesset members insulting the head of the Shin Bet, and suggest that they retract them and apologize for their words,” he continues.
“Any attack by public figures against the Shin Bet harms the security of the state and its citizens,” Gallant adds.
This morning, the Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported that Bar had personally warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Jewish terrorism against Palestinians in the West Bank was fueling Palestinian terrorism.
The warning reportedly came days before a young Palestinian man was allegedly killed by Israeli settlers near Ramallah on Friday night, and a Palestinian terrorist from Jenin killed an Israeli patrolman in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening.
The Israel Defense Forces strenuously denies troops were slow in arriving to the West Bank town of Burqa last night, where a Palestinian was killed in clashes with settlers, two of whom were arrested over the shooting.
“The claims that the IDF and security forces dawdled are not true and a false representation,” a statement from the IDF says, pushing back on the settlers’ version of events.
According to the IDF, the sides first began gathering at Burqa around 7 p.m., and at 8:07 p.m., the military received an initial Palestinian report of a clash in the area.
Troops were then dispatched to the scene, but were unable to find it “because the location they received was wrong,” the IDF statement said.
At 8:52 p.m., the military said it first heard from settlers about fighting between Palestinians and residents of nearby the Oz Zion outpost.
The IDF said soldiers received the proper coordinates seventeen minutes later and arrived at the scene at 9:20 p.m., “after the shooting.”
A lawmaker in the far-right Otzma Yehudit party slams the arrest of a settler suspected of killing a Palestinian in the West Bank, likening him to a Tel Aviv municipal guard killed this evening by a Palestinian terrorist.
“When a patrolman in Tel Aviv kills a terrorist he is met with applause from all the security figures, but when a Jew defends his life in Binyamin before an Arab mob that rose up to kill him, he’s arrested while still injured,” tweets MK Limor Son Har-Melech, using the Hebrew name for the region of the West Bank where the incident took place.
A second settler was also arrested in connection to the shooting yesterday, a former aide to a Knesset member in Otzma Yehudit. The two are due to appear at a remand hearing tonight.
“I advise the security services to direct its forces to deal with the nests of terror instead of chasing after Binyamin residents who hold tight to our land with devotion,” adds Son Har-Melech.
A settler arrested on suspicion of killing a Palestinian man in the West Bank is claiming self-defense, according to his lawyer.
The right-wing legal aid group Honenu says the suspect was seriously hurt after being struck in the head by a rock thrown at him during clashes between Palestinian residents of Burqa and settlers who came from the Oz Zion outpost.
“With his last strength, the settler succeeded in defending himself with his personal weapon, which he holds a license for,” a statement from Honenu says.
The group also notes the arrest of another settler in relation to the incident, who it says brought the suspect to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center.
“My client acted according to the law and as is required of any gun license holder — to defend his life and the lives of other citizens,” says lawyer Nati Rom, who the statement notes went to the hospital on Shabbat.
A Tel Aviv municipality security guard who was shot and critically wounded by a Palestinian terrorist in Tel Aviv has died, Ichilov Hospital announces.
The officer is named as Chen Amir, 42, a married father of three.
“Chen… was killed while preventing with his body a larger attack and in his death saved many lives,” a statement from the hospital says.
Ichilov also says his family agreed to donate his organs.
A pair of Tel Aviv municipality security guards who confronted a Palestinian gunman in Tel Aviv, one of whom was critically wounded while doing so, are hailed by Israeli leaders for potentially preventing a larger attack.
“I praise the members of Tel Aviv’s municipal security patrol for their alertness and for seeking out contact, thus thwarting a much graver attack,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says in a statement.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant similarly praises the officers for their “brave activity” and sends prayers to the wounded guard.
“We’ll bring the terrorists and their emissaries to justice,” he adds.
The Palestinian gunman who carried out the shooting attack in Tel Aviv is identified by the Shin Bet security agency as a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank.
According to the Shin Bet, Kamel Abu Bakr, 22, a resident of Rummanah, had been hiding in the Jenin refugee camp for the past six months.
Abu Bakr did not have an entry permit to Israel due to his affiliation with Islamic Jihad.
The agency is investigating how he entered Israel.
عاجل| مصادر عبرية: "ارتقاء كامل أبو بكر، منفذ عملية تل أبيب، وهو من قرية رمانة غرب جنين". pic.twitter.com/0mZSmYO3ZN
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) August 5, 2023
The Palestinian terrorist who critically wounded a security guard in Tel Aviv before being shot himself has died, the city’s Ichilov Hospital announces.
The Tel Aviv municipal security officer who shot the Palestinian gunman in Tel Aviv describes the moment of the terror attack.
“My partner and I are driving down Allenby Street, and we take a left onto Montefiore Street, where we spot a suspicious man standing near a bar on the corner,” he tells Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai at the scene.
“He didn’t make eye contact as we approached him on our motorcycles that make noise, which increased our suspicions. We turned onto the sidewalk to question him,” he continues.
“My partner was first, he managed to prop up his motorcycle, but at the same moment the terrorist pulled out a handgun and started shooting at my partner,” the officer says.
“I pulled out my handgun and fired at him. He also tried to fire a bullet or two at me but they didn’t hit. I chased after him and continued shooting until he fell to the ground,” the officer adds.
Shabtai hails the officer, saying that “there is no doubt that your quick and professional action saved a life.”
“A few meters away from us you can see the crowded cafes and understand the magnitude of the disaster that was avoided. It is thanks to your vigilance and engaging [the gunman],” Shabtai adds.
The man critically wounded in a terror attack in Tel Aviv was a municipal security guard who together with another officer confronted the assailant, Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai tells reporters at the scene.
The wounded guard is undergoing surgery at a Tel Aviv hospital.
According to Shabtai, the assailant was a 27-year-old Palestinian from the Jenin area who was carrying a “martyrdom” letter. Asked about a potential motive, Shabtai responds that currently the force only knows “he came to be a martyr.”
Shabtai says the two officers saw the suspect and called out to him, but he ignored them. As they got off their motorcycles, he then pulled out a pistol and shot one of the guards, critically wounding him.
The other officer then chased after the attacker and shot him, the police chief adds.
Shabtai says police are looking into whether the suspect had any accomplices, while adding it isn’t yet clear whether the Palestinian had permission to be in Israel.
Protesters begin gathering at sites across the country for the 31st week of protests against the government’s judicial overhaul.
Following the terror attack in Tel Aviv, protest organizers say this evening’s mass demonstration on the coastal city’s Kaplan Street will go ahead as planned. They send wishes for a full recovery to the security guard who was critically injured in a gun battle with the Palestinian terrorist.
“The protest against the judicial coup will be held as planned in a secure manner and in full coordination with police,” they say.
Police have stepped up security for the rally.
The organizers say they will not play music at tonight’s rally, and neither will they move to block roads — in order not to complicate access for the security forces and emergency services.
Police say the shooting in Tel Aviv is a suspected terror attack.
In a statement, police confirm that the suspected gunman has been shot. He is being treated by medics at the scene.
One Israeli man was critically hurt in the shooting.
Economy Minister Nir Barkat of Likud is heckled by several protesters against the government’s judicial overhaul while dining at a restaurant in Tel Aviv.
Video from the coastal city shows the demonstrators chanting “Nir Barkat is trampling Shabbat,” seeming to mock him for dining at a non-kosher establishment on the Jewish day of rest while being part of a coalition with numerous religious factions. They also chant, “Israel is still not Iran.”
A security guard could then be seen accompanying Barkat to a car as he left the scene.
השר ברקת שהה במסעדה לא כשרה בתל אביב – מפגינים הגיעו למקום: "ניר ברקת רומס את השבת" pic.twitter.com/X7UFjml0ia
— ynet עדכוני (@ynetalerts) August 5, 2023
Yisrael Beytenu MK Yulia Malinovsky says protest organizers cancelled her speech at an anti-overhaul rally in Yavne this evening due to her cosponsorship of a law that makes terrorist, nationalist or racist motivations an aggravating factor in crimes of sexual harassment and sexual assault.
“I am proud of this law and no one will cause me to be disloyal to my internal truth and values,” Malinosky writes on Twitter. “There is no contradiction between me being a right-wing liberal Zionist woman and my fight against this evil government.”
A man has been shot and seriously wounded in the Nachalat Binyamin neighborhood of Tel Aviv, medics say.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service says it is treating a 40-year-old man in critical condition at the scene.
Additionally, the gunman has been “neutralized,” MDA says. Graphic footage from the scene shows the alleged assailant on the ground after being shot.
Police do not immediately say if the shooting was a terror attack.
