One Tourist Killed, 5 Injured in Tel Aviv Attack

A person wounded in an attack is brought to a hospital in Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, April 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Gideon Markowicz)
A person wounded in an attack is brought to a hospital in Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, April 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Gideon Markowicz)
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One Tourist Killed, 5 Injured in Tel Aviv Attack

A person wounded in an attack is brought to a hospital in Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, April 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Gideon Markowicz)
A person wounded in an attack is brought to a hospital in Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, April 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Gideon Markowicz)

An Italian tourist was killed and five other tourists were wounded in a Tel Aviv car ramming attack on Friday, Israeli and Italian officials said.

An Israeli security source identified the assailant as an Israeli Arab from the town of Kafr Qassem.

A police officer who was nearby arrived at the scene to find several people wounded and an overturned car near a popular Tel Aviv promenade. The officer "neutralized" the driver when he tried to pull a gun, police said.

The car had veered off the street near a popular bike and walking path along the beach. Reuters video from shortly after the incident showed a white car upside down on the grass of a park. Police cordoned off the area that was brimming with emergency responders.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani confirmed on Twitter that the man killed was Italian.

It was the second deadly attack on Friday, after two Israeli sisters were killed when their car was shot up in the occupied West Bank.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed police to mobilize all reserve border police units and has directed the Israeli army to mobilize additional forces to confront the terror attacks, his office said.

Israel's Magen David Adom ambulance service said all the victims in the Tel Aviv attack were tourists. The police said four reserve companies of border police would be called up in the coming days.



Lebanon Elects Army Chief as New President

The Lebanese Parliament building a day before a session to elect the Lebanese president, in Beirut, Lebanon, 08 January 2025. (EPA)
The Lebanese Parliament building a day before a session to elect the Lebanese president, in Beirut, Lebanon, 08 January 2025. (EPA)
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Lebanon Elects Army Chief as New President

The Lebanese Parliament building a day before a session to elect the Lebanese president, in Beirut, Lebanon, 08 January 2025. (EPA)
The Lebanese Parliament building a day before a session to elect the Lebanese president, in Beirut, Lebanon, 08 January 2025. (EPA)

Lebanon's parliament elected army chief Joseph Aoun head of state on Thursday, filling the vacant presidency with a general who enjoys US approval and showing the diminished sway of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group after its devastating war with Israel.
The outcome reflected shifts in the power balance in Lebanon and the wider Middle East, with Hezbollah badly pummelled from last year's war, and its Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad toppled in December.
The presidency, reserved for a Maronite Christian in Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system, has been vacant since Michel Aoun's term ended in October 2022, with deeply divided factions unable to agree on a candidate able to win enough votes in the 128-seat parliament.
Aoun fell short of the 86 votes needed in a first round vote, but crossed the threshold with 99 votes in a second round, according to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, after lawmakers from Hezbollah and its Shiite ally the Amal Movement backed him.
Momentum built behind Aoun on Wednesday as Hezbollah's long preferred candidate, Suleiman Franjieh, withdrew and declared support for the army commander, and as French envoy shuttled around Beirut, urging his election in meetings with politicians, three Lebanese political sources said.
Aoun's election is a first step towards reviving government institutions in a country which has had neither a head of state nor a fully empowered cabinet since Aoun left office.
Lebanon, its economy still reeling from a devastating financial collapse in 2019, is in dire need of international support to rebuild from the war, which the World Bank estimates cost the country $8.5 billion.
Lebanon's system of government requires the new president to convene consultations with lawmakers to nominate a Sunni Muslim prime minister to form a new cabinet, a process that can often be protracted as factions barter over ministerial portfolios.
Aoun has a key role in shoring up a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel which was brokered by Washington and Paris in November. The terms require the Lebanese military to deploy into south Lebanon as Israeli troops and Hezbollah withdraw forces.
Aoun, 60, has been commander of the Lebanese army since 2017.