Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility on Wednesday for a deadly attack that killed seven people in Tel Aviv’s Jaffa district on Tuesday. The attackers carried out a shooting and stabbing spree near a light rail station, marking one of the deadliest incidents since Hamas launched its October 7 offensive.
In a statement, the militant group said, “The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades takes responsibility for the heroic Jaffa operation,” and named the attackers as Mohammed Misk and Ahmed al-Haimoni, who had infiltrated from the West Bank city of Hebron. The attack, they claimed, coincided with missile strikes fired at Israel by Iran, which launched about 200 missiles that day, forcing hundreds of thousands into shelters.
Israeli authorities reported that one of the attackers was killed, while the other was seriously wounded and taken into custody. The assault began on a light rail train when the assailants opened fire on passengers and continued on foot until police intervened.
Among the dead were three Israelis and several foreign nationals, including victims from Georgia, Greece, and Moldova. The seventh victim’s identity remains undisclosed.
This attack is part of an ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, which escalated following Hamas’s large-scale assault on Israel on October 7. Since then, 1,205 people have died in Israel, mostly civilians, while Gaza has seen at least 41,689 deaths in Israeli retaliatory strikes, according to health officials in the Hamas-controlled region.
The violence has also spilled into the West Bank, where at least 682 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces or settlers since the conflict began.
