9 Israelis stabbed on Tel Aviv bus

At least nine Israelis were injured this morning in a stabbing on a bus in Tel Aviv, local police said.

The Anadolu Agency reported Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld ssaying, the attacker stabbed Israeli passengers on a bus in central Tel Aviv, leaving five with moderate to serious injuries while four others were lightly wounded.

The suspected attacker, a 23-year-old Palestinian man from the West Bank city of Tulkarm, was shot in the leg nearby and arrested, he said.

No Palestinian group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but a senior member of Hamas hailed the attack as “heroic and daring”.

Izzat Al-Rishq posted on Twitter: “The attack that targeted the Zionists in Tel Aviv is heroic and daring. It is the natural response to the occupation’s crimes and terrorism against the Palestinians.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman blamed the Palestinian Authority (PA), Hamas and Israeli-Arab lawmakers for the stabbing.

“Those behind the Tel Aviv attack stand behind the Rahat riots and Jerusalem attacks: Abu Mazen [PA President Mahmoud Abbas], [Hamas leader Ismail] Haniyeh, [leader of the Islamist movement in Israel] Raed Saleh, [and Israeli Arab lawmakers] Haneen Zoabi, Ahmed Tibi and their partners,” he was quoted as saying by Israeli daily Haaretz.

“It’s all part of the same process of undermining Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state,” he added.