The Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations jointly claimed a “suicide mission” in Tel Aviv late Sunday, warning there are more to come on Israeli soil.
The Times of Israel reports the claim of responsibility came hours after the police and the Shin Bet security agency confirmed the blast near a synagogue was an intended terror attack.
The force reported one person — who Israeli media said was the suspected assailant — was killed and another wounded.
Israeli security and emergency personnel deploy at the site of an explosion in Tel Aviv on August 18, 2024. (JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)
The man behind the planned attack was walking down Lehi Road in south Tel Aviv on Sunday evening when the bomb he was carrying in his backpack detonated, killing him instantly and moderately wounding a passerby.
The Times report set out the events immediately before the bomb exploded:
The man behind the planned attack was walking down Lehi Road in south Tel Aviv on Sunday evening when the bomb he was carrying in his backpack detonated, killing him instantly and moderately wounding a passerby.
In the immediate aftermath of the blast, police had also been examining the possibility that it was linked to criminal or gang activity, but on Monday morning the Shin Bet and police said in a joint statement that after an initial investigation, “it can be said that this was a terror attack, with the detonation of a powerful explosive device.”
In its statement, Hamas confirmed it carried out the attack along with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad — another Gaza-based terror group — and warned suicide bombings would continue in response to Israeli attacks.
The groups threatened to carry out more such attacks in Israel “as long as the occupation’s massacres, the displacement of civilians and the policy of assassinations continue.”
It occurred shortly after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv to push for a ceasefire in Gaza after more than 10 months of war, triggered by Hamas’s murderous October 7 attack on Israel.