| 2022 Bnei Brak attack | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict | |
 The attack scene | |
  The attack site | |
| Location | Bnei Brak, Tel Aviv District, Israel |
| Coordinates | 32°05′38″N34°50′09″E / 32.09389°N 34.83583°E |
| Date | 29 March 2022 |
Attack type | Mass shooting |
| Deaths | 5 (+1 assailant) |
| Assailant | Diaa Hamarsheh |
On 29 March 2022, a series of shootings [1] took place in Bnei Brak, Israel. [2] Diaa Hamarsheh, a 26-year-old Palestinian from Ya'bad, killed five people. [3]
The attacker infiltrated into Israel by using an agricultural crossing of the Israeli barrier meant for Palestinian farmers to access fields on the other side of the border fence. [4] The attack started at around 8:00 PM local time when Hamarsheh began firing at apartment balconies. The gunman then switched to targeting passersby on HaShnaim street, killing two pedestrians at a grocery store and a car driver. [5] [6] Hamarsheh tried to shoot another resident but the gun jammed. [7]
He then left for Herzl street where he saw 29-year-old rabbi Avishai Yehezkel, who was taking his two-year-old baby in a baby stroller on a walk. Hamarsheh opened fire at Yehezkel, killing him. [8] Hamarsheh engaged in a gun battle with two police officers who were called in to confront him, ending in the terrorist's death. An officer was brought to Rabin Medical Center where he died from his injuries. [9] [6]
The attack came shortly after a man killed four people in Beersheba and two Islamic State terrorists killed two police officers and targeted civilians in a shooting attack in Hadera. [10] The three attacks killed 11 people in total, making it the deadliest week of terrorism in the country since 2006, at the end of the Second Intifada. The Bnei Brak shootings are also the deadliest single terror attack in Israel since the 2014 Jerusalem synagogue attack. [11]
The assailant was identified by police as a Palestinian from Ya'bad, [12] [13] a 26-year-old named Diaa Hamarsheh. [3] According to the Jerusalem Post , he was a Fatah affiliate who had been imprisoned in 2015 for charges of supporting terrorism as well as arms trafficking. [5] The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. [14]
In 2011, Hamarsheh had made plans to commit a suicide bombing and established contact with officials from Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad for assistance. The plan fell apart after a defected PIJ operative called the police on Hamarsheh. [15]
Hamarsheh's family, which traditionally has worked in the tobacco industry, was described by courts as "law-abiding" and family members expressed their shock at the attack. Hamarsheh's father said that he had last seen his son during lunchtime, a few hours before the shootings. [15]
As the results of the attack became known on Israeli TV, multiple videos showing celebrations at Jenin near the terrorist's home village of Ya'abad were posted on social media. These were later documented and distributed on the Israeli media. [16]
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett released a statement condemning the attack and announced increased security measures over the following days. [1]
Hamas and the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine both congratulated the attack. [13]
Neil Wigan and Dimiter Tzantchev, the British and European Union ambassadors to Israel respectively, were the first foreign representatives to condemn the killings. [17]
President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas said that "the killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians only leads the situation to deteriorate" in an official statement. [18] French President Emmanuel Macron also condemned the attack and said his thoughts were "with the victims and their loved ones". [19] Abdullah II of Jordan issued a condemnation the following day. [20]
The Ukrainian embassy in Israel confirmed reports that the two pedestrians killed at the grocery store were Ukrainian nationals, and urged for "the upscale of violence and terrorism ... [to] be stopped." [21] The Jerusalem Post wrote that the attack acquired "a boost of international solidarity" for Israel, [22] with denouncements of the attack coming from the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv, [23] the Indian ministries of Defence and External Affairs, [24] United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, [25] Japan, [26] and Egypt. [27]
In Beirut, Lebanon, supporters of Hezbollah celebrated on the streets and candies were handed out in celebration for the attack in Bnei Brak. [28]
Note: This compilation includes only those attacks that resulted in casualties. Attacks which did not kill or wound are not included.
Bnei Brak or Bene Beraq is a city located on the central Mediterranean coastal plain in Israel, just east of Tel Aviv. A center of Haredi Judaism, Bnei Brak covers an area of 709 hectares, and had a population of 218,357 in 2022. It is one of the poorest and most densely populated cities in Israel, and the fourth-most densely populated city in the world.
Note: This compilation includes only those attacks on Israelis that resulted in casualties and no Palestinian deaths are recorded. Numerous other attacks which failed to kill, maim, or wound are not included.
On 6 March 2008, a lone Palestinian gunman shot multiple students at the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva, a religious school in West Jerusalem. Eight students and the assailant were killed. Eleven more were wounded, five of them placed in serious to critical condition.
The Tel Aviv gay centre shooting resulted in the deaths of two people and injuries to at least fifteen others at the Tel Aviv branch of the Israeli LGBT Association, at the "Bar-Noar", on Nahmani Street, on August 1, 2009. A 26-year-old man and a 17-year-old girl were killed. Three deaths were mentioned in earlier reports of the incident but one has since been discounted.
Events in the year 2002 in Israel.
The 2001 Immanuel bus attack was an ambush attack by Palestinian militants targeting Israeli civilians on the West Bank on 12 December 2001. Eleven passengers were killed in the attack and 30 were injured.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades is a coalition of Palestinian armed groups in the West Bank. The organization has been designated as a terrorist organization by Israel, the European Union, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and the United States.
On 1 January 2016, an Israeli Arab gunman opened fire on several businesses on Dizengoff Street, Tel Aviv, Israel, killing two and injuring seven civilians. He also killed a taxi driver while fleeing. The attack was believed to be inspired by ISIS. The event took place in parallel with the 2015-16 Palestinian unrest.
On the morning of 26 September 2017, a Palestinian gunman opened fire at Israeli security guards at the entrance gate of Har Adar, an Israeli settlement and affluent residential border community of Jerusalem located largely on the other side of the green line within the West Bank. Three Israeli security guards were killed and one was injured. The gunman was shot dead by the remaining guards. The Israeli authorities described the attack as an 'act of terrorism'.
On 21 November 2021, a shooting took place in the Old City of Jerusalem. Fadi Abu Shkhaydem, a 42-year-old Palestinian from East Jerusalem killed a 26 year old Israeli, who had made aliyah from South Africa in 2019. He injured four others before being shot dead by police.
Events in the year 2022 in Israel.
On March 22, 2022, four people were killed and two more were injured during a stabbing and vehicle-ramming attack by an Islamic State supporter in Beersheba, Israel.
On 27 March 2022, two Islamic State gunmen opened fire at a bus stop in Hadera, Israel, killing two people and injuring twelve.
The following is a list of events during the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in 2022.
On 7 April 2022, a mass shooting took place on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv, Israel. Three Israeli civilians were killed and 6 were injured.
On 5 May 2022, a terror attack took place in El'ad, Central District, Israel, during Israel's Independence Day. Four civilians were murdered and several others were injured.
Events in the year 2022 in the Palestinian territories.
On 27 January 2023, a Palestinian gunman killed at least seven civilians in the Israeli settlement of Neve Yaakov, in East Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank. The suspect is also reported as having shot at worshippers exiting a synagogue, and, according to the police, was shot and killed after he opened fire on the attending officers. It was Israel's deadliest peacetime Palestinian attack since the Jerusalem yeshiva attack in 2008.
| 2021 |
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| 2022 |
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| 2023 |
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| 2024 |
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Attacks launched by Palestinians from the West Bank Attacks launched by Palestinians from the Gaza Strip Attacks launched from Egypt Attacks carried out by Arab citizens of Israel ‡ indicates the terrorist attack which caused the greatest number of Israeli casualties
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