Sword-Wielding Arab Injures Tourists

An Israeli Arab man armed with a sword, knife and plastic gun tried to run down a group of British tourists in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, then stabbed two women at a sidewalk restaurant, police said.

Eleven people suffered minor injuries, police spokesman Linda Menuhin said. Israel Radio said seven people were hospitalized but all would be released soon.

Israeli radio reports said the attacker was a supporter of the militant Hamas group, but Menuhin did not confirm this and said his motives remained unclear.

Menuhin said that at 9:45 p.m. the man drove his car into a group of about 20 tourists in a plaza in the Jaffa quarter of Tel Aviv, injuring eight or nine. The radio said there were no skid marks on the street, suggesting he did not try to brake.

The British tourists were a group of Jewish teenagers in Israel on a summer tour, Israel radio reported.

The man then got out of his car and stabbed a Toronto woman and her daughter, who were sitting at a sidewalk restaurant, before he was subdued by a police officer, radio reports said.

“The driver got out holding a sword and a commando knife and went towards the civilians and tried to stab a number and succeeded,” police officer Daniel Konson, who captured the man, said on army radio.

Konson tied up the attacker and led him to a nearby police station, Menuhin said. There, the attacker told police he couldn’t remember anything and was otherwise not cooperating with his questioners, she said.

Menuhin said the man also had a plastic gun with him.

Israel Radio said the man, identified as a 32-year-old from the northern city of Nazareth, was known to police as a Hamas supporter and an activist in militant organizations.

Hamas, which opposes IsraeliPalestinian peace-making, has claimed responsibility for several deadly attacks against Israel in the past years including a March bombing of a Tel Aviv cafe that killed three Israeli women.