Week of Deadly Terror Attacks in Israel // FAI ONLINE

This is a developing story which will be updated as additional information is released and clarified by Israeli authorities and media sources.

29 March 2022 — Four Israeli civilians are dead this evening after a Palestinian gunman ambushed their car on the streets of Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv. The attacker also shot an Israeli-Arab police officer who returned fire, killing the terrorist. The officer, a 32-year-old Christian Arab named Amir Koury, later died of his wounds. The gunman was identified as a resident of Jenin in the West Bank, an operative of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) jihadist organization, and a convicted terrorist. The gunman was shot and killed by authorities as he hunted Israeli civilians in Bnei Brak, a religiously conservative Jewish community. Two other conspirators have reportedly been arrested by Israeli law enforcement in other locations.

Tonight’s attack was the third across Israel in the last week. Last Tuesday, an Israeli Arab attacker used his car and a knife to murder four Israeli citizens on the streets of the southern city of Beersheba before he was shot to death by an armed civilian. Then on Sunday, two Israeli Border Patrol officers were murdered by two Israeli Arab attackers in the central town of Hadera. The victims were a female Jewish Israeli named Shirel Aboukrat and a Druze man named Yazan Falah from the Galilee community of Kisra-Sumei. The perpetrators had managed to accumulate several pistols, over 1,000 rounds of ammunition, and Kevlar vests before carrying out the attack. The Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for both attacks, which were praised by Hamas and Hezbollah.

The attacks come as US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with the foreign ministers of Israel, Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates in the Negev Desert on Monday. It was the first such diplomatic conference between Israeli and Arab leaders on Israeli soil, as part of the ongoing Abraham Accord initiatives. Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid lauded the momentous occasion, while acknowledging the threat it poses to hostile actors in the region, such as Iran:

"What we are doing here is making history, building a new regional architecture based on progress, technology, religious tolerance, security and intelligence cooperation…This new architecture, the shared capabilities we are building, intimidates and deters our common enemies, first and foremost Iran and its proxies. From this desert will spring forth palaces and temples, schools and hospitals, inspirational art and literature and groundbreaking technology. This meeting is the first of its kind, but not the last."

Hamas, PIJ and Hezbollah are all clients of the Iranian regime and its paramilitary arm, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

We ask the Maranatha global family to join us in prayer on behalf of the people of Israel, including Jews, Druze, and Arabs, who are all threatened by the latest spat of violence. We pray that the enemy’s designs to sow hatred, fear and violence would fail, that legitimate efforts towards peace and reconciliation would continue, and that, as always, the Comfort of Israel would work in the midst of pain and confusion to bring light, grace and peace.

Maranatha!