Jerusalem, Aug 19 (EFE).- Israeli authorities confirmed Monday that an explosion in Tel Aviv that claimed the life of the suspect and injured another person was an attempted terror attack.
«After completing initial investigations, we can confirm that this was a terrorist attack involving a powerful explosive device,» said Israeli police, which has been investigating Sunday night’s incident with agents from the bomb disposal unit, forensic investigators and the Israeli domestic intelligence service (Shin Bet).
As a result of the explosion, one passerby was injured and was taken to hospital in moderate condition.
The body of the suspected assailant, aged around 50 and reported to have carried the device in a backpack, was severely disfigured and not yet identified.
Shortly afterwards, the armed wing of the Islamist group Hamas claimed responsibility for the explosion in collaboration with Palestinian group Islamic Jihad, according to a message on Telegram. It warned that suicide bombings will continue in Israel.
The growing tension since the start of the war in Gaza, which has already killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, raises fears of an escalation of violence in Israel, as happened during the Second Intifada (2000-05), with suicide attacks by Palestinians in public spaces such as buses and nightclubs.
So far in 2024, a total of 22 Israelis (half of them soldiers or police) have died in 14 Palestinian attacks, including stabbings, car-rammings and shootings, most of them near Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank, according to an EFE count.
Meanwhile, at least 292 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank, mostly at the hands of the military during the regular army incursions in Jenin, Tulkarem and Nablus, among other hotbeds of armed Palestinian resistance, and a dozen in attacks by Jewish settlers in the West Bank, which are becoming more frequent and violent. EFE
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