JERUSALEM: Israel began calling up police and army reservists on Saturday after separate attacks claimed the lives of three people, including an Italian tourist, in Tel Aviv and the occupied West Bank.

Despite appeals for restraint, violence has surged since Israeli police went after Palestinian worsh­ippers inside Jerus­alem’s flashpoint Al Aqsa mosque on Wednesday, with Israel bombarding both Gaza and Lebanon in response to rocket fire by Palestinian fighters.

The Italian was killed and seven other tourists wounded when a man identified as being of Arab origin, ploughed a car into pedestrians on the Tel Aviv seafront on Friday evening and flipped over before being shot dead, police and emergency services said.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni named the dead man as Alessandro Parini, 36. Police identified the driver as a 45-year-old from the Arab town of Kfar Kassem in central Israel. “The terrorist was neutralised,” a spokesman said.

Violence has surged since Israeli police thrashed worshippers inside Al Aqsa mosque

Following the Tel Aviv attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the police to “mobilise all reserve border police units” and directed the army to “mobilise additional forces”, his office said.

Police said four reserve battalions of border police would be deployed in city centres from Sunday, in addition to units already deployed in the Jerusalem region and in the central city of Lod, which has a mixed population of Jews and Arabs.

Cross-border strikes

The attacks came after Israel launched air strikes and an artillery bombardment before dawn in response to rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.

It was the heaviest rocket fire from Lebanon since Israel fought a 34-day war with Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in 2006 and the first time Israel has confirmed an attack on Lebanese territory since April 2022.

Israel “struck targets, including terror infrastructures, belonging to the Hamas terrorist organisation in southern Lebanon”, the army said.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, which patrols the area along the border, urged restraint, noting: “Both sides have said they do not want a war.”

On Friday evening, the army said it had shot down a drone that had entered Israel’s airspace from Lebanon.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2023