Two Arab gunmen kill two police officers in Israel and are shot dead

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Two Arab gunmen killed two cops on a metropolis avenue in Israel on Sunday and had been then shot lifeless, because the U.S. secretary of state and three Arab overseas ministers visited the nation for a summit.

Islamic State claimed accountability for the assault in a press release posted on its Telegram account.

The 2 assailants in Hadera, a metropolis about 50 km (30 miles) north of Tel Aviv, had been Arab residents of Israel and sympathisers of the group, Israeli safety officers mentioned.

“We condemn as we speak’s terrorist assault in Hadera, Israel,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote on Twitter (NYSE:). “Such mindless acts of violence and homicide don’t have any place in society. We stand with our Israeli companions and ship our condolences to the households of the victims.”

The assault occurred 5 days after an Arab from southern Israel killed not less than 4 Israelis in a stabbing and automotive ramming spree within the metropolis of Beersheba, earlier than he was fatally shot by a passerby.

Surveillance digicam footage broadcast on Israeli tv stations confirmed two males opening hearth with assault rifles on a essential avenue in Hadera, elevating fears in Israel of a wave of such assaults.

Two members of Israel’s paramilitary border police had been killed by the assailants, police mentioned. The 2 gunmen had been shot lifeless by cops who had been eating at a close-by restaurant.

“Fortunately, our officers managed to neutralise the assailants and forestall an even bigger terrorist assault,” nationwide police spokesman Eli Levy mentioned on Israel’s Kan tv.

In Israel’s southern Negev desert, the overseas ministers of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, three nations that normalised relations with Israel in 2020, convened for a summit with Blinken in attendance.

Israeli International Minister Yair Lapid “up to date the overseas ministers taking part within the Negev Summit on the main points of the fear assault in Hadera,” the Israeli overseas ministry tweeted.

“All of the overseas ministers condemned the assault, and requested to ship their condolences to the households of the victims & needs for the restoration of the wounded,” the ministry mentioned.

Israeli safety officers have cautioned about an escalation in assaults on Israelis within the run-up to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in April – a unstable interval prior to now.

Jordan’s King Abdullah is because of meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas within the occupied West Financial institution on Monday in what’s extensively seen in Israel as an try to calm tensions forward of the vacation interval, which additionally consists of Easter and Passover.