3 people killed in axe attack in Israel

Two assailants, at least one of them armed with an axe, attacked passersby in an Israeli town Thursday night, killing at least three, according to initial reports from eyewitnesses, police and emergency services.

Israeli authorities described the assault, in which several other people were wounded, as a terrorist attack.

The attack followed a wave of violence by Arab assailants that had already killed 14 people in cities across Israel since late March, and came days after a Palestinian militant leader urged Arabs to “get your cleavers, axes or knives ready.”

Thursday's attack also came after clashes between Palestinian stone throwers and Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem over the past few weeks. And it raised the spectre that Israel had entered a new period of prolonged violence.

Despite worries of another clash at the mosque Thursday, Israel’s Independence Day, it was relatively calm there, although the Israeli police arrested one Palestinian protester. Nonetheless, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas issued strident statements decrying the police action.

On Saturday, Yehya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, had warned that any further raids by Israeli police inside the mosque compound would prompt a response. In a fiery speech, he urged members of Israel’s Arab minority to “get your cleavers, axes or knives ready.”

The attack Thursday took place in Elad, a predominantly ultra-Orthodox town in central Israel, just after nightfall.

Emergency responders said they found the first fatality by a traffic circle in Elad and two more in a nearby park.

“When we arrived we realised that this was a complex scene,” said Alon Rizkan, a paramedic with the Magen David Adom ambulance service. He described the three people who were pronounced dead at the scene as men, all aged around 40.

Several more wounded men were transferred to hospitals, and hospital officials said at least two were in critical condition with head injuries.

Hours later, police said they were still investigating the circumstances of the attack, including how many suspects were involved. Details remained sketchy: Some witnesses reported seeing two assailants, both carrying axes. Others said one was armed with an axe and another with a knife.

The assailants appeared to have escaped. Police said they had set up checkpoints along several roads, and officers in a police helicopter were searching for a vehicle seen fleeing the scene. The minister of defence, Benny Gantz, said soldiers would assist in the hunt.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack Thursday, but it was praised by a Hamas spokesperson as “a brave and heroic act” and “a natural response to the violations of the occupation against the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

The Aqsa Mosque compound is the holiest site in Jerusalem for both Muslims and Jews, who revere it as the Temple Mount, the site of two ancient Jewish temples.

Clashes broke out there repeatedly during the recent holy month of Ramadan, as Palestinians attempted to block what they feared were efforts to undermine Muslim access to and oversight over the site, and Israeli police mounted what they said were counterterrorism efforts to keep the site safe and accessible to Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Israeli authorities say there has been no change in long-standing arrangements at the site nor are there plans to change them.

During the recent violence, Palestinians have typically thrown stones and shot off fireworks at police, while police have fired sponge-covered bullets and tear gas.

The police actions have fueled popular anger among Palestinians.

Tensions had been expected to be high at the mosque Thursday because some ultranationalist groups had called for Israelis to enter the compound carrying Israeli flags for Independence Day in an assertion of Israeli sovereignty over the site. The Aqsa Mosque lies in East Jerusalem, which Israel considers part of its capital and most of the world considers occupied.

But the tensions there were lower than in recent weeks, barring a brief sequence of scuffles that lasted less than five minutes.

Police instructed Israelis not to display Israeli flags, and confiscated at least one flag after an Israeli woman tried to unfurl it on the mosque grounds.

Violence broke out briefly at about 7:50 am, when a Palestinian man blocked the path of a group of Israeli visitors, video showed. The man was quickly arrested during a brief scuffle, and police formed a loose cordon between Israeli and Palestinian civilians.

Two minutes later, another scuffle broke out between police and Palestinians, during which Palestinians threw four plastic chairs, and a group of Palestinians ran into the main mosque on the site and barricaded themselves inside.

Over the next three minutes, several blasts could be heard, but it was unclear whether these were shots fired by police or fireworks set off by Palestinians. Police later said the Palestinians threw stones and fireworks, though none were visible in the video at that time.

Police officers briefly opened one of the mosque doors and stood inside the threshold for less than a minute. But the mood calmed within five minutes, and dozens of Muslims prayed throughout the morning on the terrace outside the main mosque.

But the reaction from Palestinian leaders was bellicose.

The Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Ministry called the police actions “an official Israeli declaration of a religious war that would set the entire region on fire.”

Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, later released a statement calling it “a serious escalation and a direct provocation and foreshadowed an all-out explosion.”

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