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's New President Says to Ensure State Has Exclusive Right to Carry Arms

This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)
This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)
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Lebanon's New President Says to Ensure State Has Exclusive Right to Carry Arms

This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)
This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)

Lebanon's newly elected President Joseph Aoun told lawmakers on Thursday that he will work to ensure the state has the exclusive right to carry arms, in his first speech at parliament after he was elected.

His comments were seen partly as a reference to Hezbollah's arsenal, which he had not commented on publicly as the former army commander.

In a first round of voting Thursday, Aoun received 71 out of 128 votes but fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to win outright. Of the rest, 37 lawmakers cast blank ballots and 14 voted for “sovereignty and the constitution.”
In the second round, he received 99 votes.

In his speech in parliament, Aoun also pledged to carry out reforms to the judicial system and fight corruption.

He promised to control the country’s borders and “ensure the activation of the security services and to discuss a strategic defense policy that will enable the Lebanese state to remove the Israeli occupation from all Lebanese territories” in southern Lebanon, where the Israeli military has not yet withdrawn from dozens of villages.

He also vowed to reconstruct “what the Israeli army destroyed in the south, east and (Beirut’s southern) suburbs.”

Thursday’s vote came weeks after a tenuous ceasefire agreement halted a 14-month conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and at a time when Lebanon’s leaders are seeking international assistance for reconstruction.

Aoun said he would call for parliamentary consultations as soon as possible on naming a new prime minister.