2016 Tel Aviv stabbings

2016 Tel Aviv stabbings
Part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict (2015–present)
Location	Jaffa Port and Tel Aviv Promenade
Coordinates
Date	8 March 2016 (2016-03-08) (IST)
Attack type	Stabbing
Weapons	Knife
Deaths	2 (including the perpetrator)
Injured	11
Victims	Tourists and civilians
Perpetrator	Bashar Massalha

On 8 March 2016, a 21-year-old West Bank Palestinian man from the Qalqilya refugee camp killed an American tourist, and United States Army Veteran, Taylor Force and wounded ten other people in a stabbing spree in Jaffa Port, Tel Aviv, Israel. The attacker was shot dead by the police after a chase along the beach promenade.

Attack

The attack happened while US Vice President Joe Biden was meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres in Tel Aviv. According to police, the assailant first attacked persons in the harbor and later went to a restaurant where four more persons were wounded. According to ambulance personnel, five of the victims suffered serious wounds. The attack lasted approximately 20 minutes and ended when the assailant was shot and killed by responding police.

Victims

Taylor Force, age 28, graduated from West Point in 2009 and later became an officer in the United States Army until leaving in 2014. While in the army, Force served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, participating in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation New Dawn, and Operation Enduring Freedom. At the time of the attack Force, an MBA student, was traveling with other graduate students from Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management studying global entrepreneurship.

In addition to Force, eleven others were injured, including a pregnant woman, an Arab Israeli, and a Palestinian who was illegally residing in Israel.

Assailant

The attacker was identified as 21-year-old Bashar Masalha, who was from the city of Qalqilya located in the Palestinian territories. He was residing in Israel illegally.

Aftermath

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) announced on the night of the attacks that it was imposing closures on the West Bank villages of Zawiya and Al-Auja, the hometown's of two of the attackers.

Following the attack and the two other attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held security consultations with Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan, police chief Roni Alsheikh and IDF and Shin Bet officials. The Prime Minister's Office said it was immediately decided to close gaps in the separation barrier in the Jerusalem area, and to complete construction of the barrier in the Tarqumiyah area in the South Hebron Hills. It was also decided to close Palestinian media outlets accuses of incitement. Professionals in the defense establishment will decide which Palestinian media will be closed. Further, it was decided to deny work permits for family members of assailents.
The Israeli police began a law enforcement operation to crackdown Palestinian illegal residents, arresting more than 250 illegal Arabs across the country, but focused on construction sites and large shopping areas, which normally are magnets for cheap, cash-in-the-hand labor. The arresting officers discovered a small compound, complete with sleeping tents, showers, a lavatory and a kitchen illegal Arab workers had erected in HaBesor Stream in southern Israel, not far from the Gaza Strip. Police reported that 15 Israeli employers and 12 drivers were arrested by 10 March. According to a Knesset Internal Affairs and Environment Committee from 14 March, chaired by MK David Amsalem (Likud), out of the 73 Palestinian attacks that occurred within the Green Line, 27 were carried out by illegal Arab residents. Police noted that each year sees tens of thousands of cases of illegal Arab residents, who are brought before a judge when their stay involve security risks. Which, obviously, means that even now there are tens of thousands of illegal Arabs moving freely everywhere inside Israel, some of whom may be "terrorist ticking bombs".

Reactions

Domestic

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to Facebook to express his condolences. "On behalf of the people of Israel, I send my condolences to Taylor's family and friends. May his memory be a blessing," he wrote in a post.

Palestinian organizations

• Fatah, the party of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, posted a statement online praising the attacker as a hero and a "martyr," and suggesting such attacks would continue "so long as Israel does not believe in the two-state solution and ending its occupation."
• Hamas said is a statement: "We applaud he courageous attacks in Tel Aviv (Petah Tikva - ed.), Jerusalem and Yafo. This is proof of the failure of all the conspiracies meant to eradicate the intifada, which will continue until its goals are achieved."
• Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine joined Hamas in welcoming the attacks, and said that the continuation of the attacks sends a clear message to those who are doubtful, proving that the intifada is continuing and growing more intense.

International

• United States Vice President Joe Biden chastised Palestinian leaders for not condemning the latest in a series of stabbing attacks targeting Israelis. "The kind of violence we saw yesterday, the failure to condemn it, the rhetoric that incites that violence, the retribution that it generates, has to stop," Biden said.

See also

• Israeli–Palestinian conflict (2015–present)
• List of violent incidents in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, 2016
• List of terrorist incidents, January–June 2016

External links

• US student Taylor Force killed in terror attack. Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Message from Chancellor Zeppos on student death in Israel. Vanderbilt University