ISIS claims responsibility for Israel attack that killed 2

JERUSALEM (AFP, REUTERS) - ISIS claimed responsibility for an attack in Israel, which it said killed two soldiers and injured 10, according to a statement posted on the group’s Telegram account early on Monday (March 29).

“Two members of the Jewish (state’s) police force were killed and others were injured in an immersive commando attack,” ISIS said in a rare claim for an attack inside Israel.

The group said two of its fighters had carried out the shooting on Sunday at Herbert Samuel Street in Hadera city in northern Israel.

It claimed 10 others were wounded in ensuing clashes.

According to the SITE intelligence group, this is the first time since 2017 that ISIS has officially claimed an attack in Israel.

Earlier, Israeli security officials said two Arab gunmen killed two people in Hadera, a city about 50km north of Tel Aviv, on Sunday before they were shot dead.

The incident occurred as the US secretary of state and three Arab foreign ministers visited Israel for a summit.

“We condemn today’s terrorist attack in Hadera, Israel,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote on Twitter. “Such senseless acts of violence and murder have no place in society. We stand with our Israeli partners and send our condolences to the families of the victims.”

Israeli officials had said the two assailants were Arab citizens of Israel. Israeli media reports said they were Islamic State sympathisers.

The attack occurred five days after an Arab from southern Israel killed at least four Israelis in a stabbing and car ramming spree in the city of Beersheba, before he was fatally shot by a passerby.

Surveillance camera footage broadcast on Israeli television stations showed two men opening fire with assault rifles on a main street in Hadera, raising fears in Israel of a wave of such attacks.

Two people were killed by the assailants, police and emergency services said. Police said the two gunmen were shot dead by policemen who had been dining at a nearby restaurant.

"Luckily, our officers managed to neutralise the assailants and prevent a bigger terrorist attack," national police spokesman Eli Levy said on Israel's Kan television.

In Israel's southern Negev desert, the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, three countries that normalised relations with Israel in 2020, convened for a summit with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in attendance.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid "updated the foreign ministers participating in the Negev Summit on the details of the terror attack in Hadera," the Israeli foreign ministry tweeted.

"All the foreign ministers condemned the attack, and asked to send their condolences to the families of the victims & wishes for the recovery of the wounded," the ministry said.

Israeli security officials have cautioned about an escalation in attacks on Israelis in the run-up to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in April - a volatile period in the past.

Jordan's King Abdullah is due to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank on Monday in what is widely seen in Israel as an attempt to calm tensions ahead of the holiday period, which also includes Easter and Passover.