Three British citizens wounded in Tel Aviv car-ramming attack

Three British tourists were among seven people wounded in a car-ramming attack in Tel Aviv on Friday that killed an Italian man.

The Italian and British citizens had been walking along the promenade at around 9.30pm local time when the car, driven by 44-year-old Yousef Abu Jaber from Kafr Qassem, ploughed into them.

The attack came just hours after two British Israeli sisters were shot dead in a terror attack in the West Bank.

UK ambassador to Israel Neil Wigan confirmed that following the Tel Aviv attack “British people are amongst the injured.”

He added:”We are in touch with the hospital and will offer our support.”

Minister for the Middle East Lord Ahmad tweeted on Saturday:”I condemn yesterday’s attacks in the West Bank, killing two British-Israeli nationals and injuring one other, and in Tel Aviv where an Italian national was killed and British nationals were injured.

“My thoughts and prayers are with all those impacted.”

Later foreign secretary James Cleverly tweeted:”I spoke with foreign minister Eli Cohen
this morning after the appalling attacks in Israel and the West Bank, which took the lives of two British-Israeli citizens and left other British nationals injured.”

He added the UK foreign office has “offered support to all those affected.”

Israeli police said the car, driven by the attacker had rammed into a group of people near a popular Tel Aviv seaside park before flipping over.

Police “neutralised” the driver when he tried to pull a gun, they said.

Italian tourist Alessandro Parini, aged 35, from Rome, was named as the victim of the attack.

The victims of the earlier terror attack, which took place near the Hamra settlement, about 30 miles north of Jerusalem, after expected to be named after Shabbat goes out.

The sisters, aged 15 and 20, are believed to be the daughter’s of a a British-born rabbi who was previously based in north London.

Their mother was rushed to hospital in critical condition after also being shot.

The pair of attacks by Palestinian assailants on Friday came after Israel launched retaliatory air strikes at Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered police “to mobilise all reserve border police units and has directed the IDF to mobilise additional forces to confront the terror attacks”, his office said.