Stabbing in Tel Aviv Synagogue Leaves Two Dead; Others Injured

A terror stabbing left two people dead in southern Tel Aviv on Ben Tzvi Street, around 2:00 pm.  The attack took place in the synagogue of the Panorama building after traditional afternoon prayer services.  It was reported that one of the murdered men was holding a Torah scroll.

Magen David Adom confirmed that one young man in his 20s and one man in his 50s were murdered in the stabbing attack. One of the victims was transferred to Ichilov Hospital, where he later died of his wounds. Magen David Adom provided medical care to two other people wounded who were also brought to Ichilov.

Security forces searched the nearby buildings to prevent other similar incidents around the Panorama building where the stabbing took place. The Panorama building is currently under lock-down and workers were asked to remain locked in their rooms.

The Magen David Adom spokesman Zaki Heller stated that:  “At 13:59, Magen David Adom received a preliminary report of a number of people who were injured from a stabbing incident on Ben Tzvi street in the Panorama Building.”

Meanwhile, Deputy Defense Minister Eli Ben-Dahan spoke with Tazpit Press Service shortly following the terrorist attack.

“Just yesterday, we marked one year since the terrible massacre in a synagogue in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood. The next year, the terror hit us mercilessly. And another horrific terrorist attack happened this time in Tel Aviv. Terrorism is terrorism and it does not matter where it occurs. Its source is the instigation from the heads of the Palestinian leadership who are encouraging it. Only demolition the houses of the terrorists connected to the attack and expulsion of family members, will prevent the next attack,” Dahan told TPS.

An eyewitness named Israel told Israel’s Channel 10 that he saw the terrorist stabbing a man. “I heard shouts – I thought it was a street brawl and I went outside. I saw the terrorist standing over a body and stabbing it. I threw a pole at the terrorist and it hit him. He left his victim and came after me. An employee of mine saw the situation and quickly pulled me into a room, locking the door. We could hear the terrorist trying to break the door down.”

Magen David Adom Paramedics Moshe Denberg and Yonit Nino also described the scene. “The scene was difficult. At the entrance to one of the businesses in the building laid a 32-year-old unconscious man who was without a pulse and was not breathing, after suffering from stab wounds to the upper body. Near him, laid a man with stab wounds to this upper body. On the floor below, we found another victim, a man about 50 years old who was conscious.”

One terrorist who was neutralized, was a 36-year old Palestinian man from the town of Dura, next to Hebron, who worked in a restaurant in the area of the attack.  Currently, there are no other suspected terrorists connected to the stabbing attack.

The images of the the bloody scene in the Tel Aviv basement synagogue recalled last year’s deadly Har Nof terror attacks that left six people dead including four rabbis.