Tel Aviv, April 9: There is no letup in the tension between Israel, Palestinian and Lebanon in West Asia.
The situation is so grim that Israel has started calling all its Army and Police reservists and has cancelled leave for its defence personnel. This latest development is after separate attacks killed three persons, including an Italian tourist, in Tel Aviv and the occupied West Bank.
Violence has surged since the Israeli police clashed with Palestinians inside Jerusalem’s Al – Aqsa mosque on Wednesday, with Israel bombarding Gaza and Lebanon in response to rocket fire by Palestinian militants.
The Italian was killed and seven other tourists wounded when an Israeli Arab ploughed a car into pedestrians on the Tel Aviv seafront on Friday evening and flipped over before being shot dead. Italian Prime Minister Glorgia Meloni named the dead man as thirty-six year old Alessandro Parini.
The police identified the driver of the car – who ploughed into the pedestrians – as a 45-year old from the Arab town of Kfar Kassem in Central Israel.
Palestinian Islamist movement, Hamas, which rules Gaza, said the attack was a “natural and legitimate response” to Israel’s “aggression” in the Al-Aqsa mosque.
It may be recalled that on Friday two British-Israeli sisters were killed, and their mother seriously wounded when their car was fired on in the Jordah Valley in the occupied West Bank.
West Asia experts opine that Israel’s decision to call reservists and cancel leave of its defense personnel is an indication that “all is not well” and “is going to escalate” in the next coming days.
“Israel normally does not go the extent of calling its reservists and cancelling the leave of its defense personnel. If it has done that, then the situation is going to be alarming in the near future. It is difficult to say what it shape the conflict takes and how long it will go on, but it is for sure that nothing is going to be alright,” experts say.
EOM.
