Palestinian attack leaves one Israeli dead in Tel Aviv; shooter killed

JERUSALEM - A Tel Aviv municipal patrol officer has died after being shot by a Palestinian on a street in central Tel Aviv, Israeli officials said on Saturday.

The suspected shooter was then shot dead by another municipal patrol worker, Tel Aviv’s Mayor Ron Huldai told Israel’s public broadcaster.

A statement from the Israeli police said the shooter was a 27-year-old resident of the Palestinian town of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas praised the attack, but did not take responsibility.

The shooting came a day after a Palestinian teenager was killed in an attack by Israeli civilians on a Palestinian village in the West Bank.

Washington has expressed concern over

a growing number of attacks by Jewish settlers

on Palestinian villages in the West Bank, where violence has worsened since 2022 with

increased Israeli raids

amid Palestinian street attacks on Israelis.

Mr Huldai said the municipal worker had approached the attacker after noticing something suspicious and was then fired at by the shooter.

“We are standing at a very sad incident,” Mr Huldai said. “We are praying for the well-being of the injured.”

In a brief statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the actions of the municipal patrol officers.

Despite the attack, tens of thousands protested in Tel Aviv against

the governing coalition’s planned judicial overhaul

which would see the highest court stripped of much of its powers, according to the Israeli public broadcaster.

Proponents of the legislation say it restores balance to the branches of government, while those against it say it removes checks on government powers.

In July,

the coalition passed legislation that removed the court’s power

to strike down government actions based on the action being classified as “unreasonable”.

REUTERS