Two Israeli police officers killed in Attack
Israeli police officers in Lob. (Wikimedia).
Two Israeli police officers were killed by ISIS-affiliated gunmen in Israel’s northern city of Hadera on March 27th. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack through a statement on the social media app Telegram, making this the first attack officially claimed by ISIS in Israel since 2017. Israeli security officials confirmed that the perpetrators were ISIS-affiliated operatives from the Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm.
According to a Police statement, the “two terrorists arrived at Herbert Samuel Street in Hadera, and began shooting at a police” yet officers in “an Israeli counter-terrorism force happened to be in a restaurant nearby and they ran out and neutralized the terrorists.” The attack resulted in the death of “Two Israelis” and injured six, four of which were taken to the hospital according to Magen David Adom emergency medical responders. Dudu Boani, the police deputy commander for the region stated to reporters that the two casualties were both members of Israel's paramilitary border police, and both ISIS assailants were killed in the altercation.
This was the second domestic terrorist attack in Israel perpetrated by Arab Israeli assailants in a week. On March 22nd, a man rammed his car into an Israeli woman and proceeded to go on a stabbing spree, killing four people in total. The attacker was identified by Israeli police as an Arab citizen of Israel with alleged links to ISIS yet no official statement was made by ISIS to take credit for the attack. According to Police spokesman Eli Levy, "a civilian took the initiative and shot and killed" the attacker.
In response to the March 27th attack, the Israeli army stated they would increase the number of security forces deployed around and within the occupied West Bank. The Prime minister’s office confirmed that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett traveled to Hadera and was briefed on the situation by local police officers. The Ministry of Defense stated that Defense Minister Benny Gantz was conducting an assessment of the threat situation in cooperation with intelligence and police officials. Meanwhile, Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist organization based out of Gaza, called the attack a “heroic operation” and praised it as the “natural and legitimate response” to “crimes against our people.”
This attack occurred at the same time as representatives from four Arab states and the US secretary of state met in southern Israel in a historic summit to normalize relations. After learning of the situation, all of the Foreign Ministers from the Arab nations present “condemned the attack, sent their condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the wounded,” according to Israel’s foreign minister, Yair Lapid. US Secretary of State, Antony Blinkin, condemned the attack as well, stating over Twitter that "Such senseless acts of violence and murder have no place in society. We stand with our Israeli partners and send our condolences to the families of the victims.”