John Jefferson
One person was killed and four others were injured in a shooting near Ashdod, Israel, that has now been deemed a terrorist attack Tuesday.
Authorities say an assailant opened fire on a police officer in the area before turning his weapons on civilians. The police officer died of his wounds while being transported to a nearby hospital. The attacker was killed by an armed civilian.
At least one of the injured civilians was considered to be in moderate condition. Volunteer EMTs were the first to respond to the scene, and they offered a public statement describing the situation.
“We provided initial treatment at the scene and performed CPR on a 30-year-old man in critical condition,” EMTs said. “We were also told that other first responders and a United Hatzalah ambulance team treated at two additional locations a person in light to moderate condition who was transported to the hospital by the United Hatzalah ambulance, and a lightly injured man.”
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“It was also reported that another driver was injured by shards of glass and continued driving to the Nir Galim intersection,” the EMTs said.
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Another local hospital, the Kaplan Medical Center, reported receiving a 37-year-old man who was injured in the incident, according to the Jerusalem Post.
The shooting comes one day after Israeli authorities announced four Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers were killed and nearly 60 people were wounded in a drone strike on a military base in Binyamina, Israel. The Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack, according to reports.
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On Sunday, as Israelis were celebrating Yom Kippur, there was another drone strike in a Tel Aviv suburb that damaged the area but did not cause any injuries.
Sunday’s strike came the same day the U.S. said it would send a new air-defense system to Israel to increase protection from missiles.
“The THAAD Battery will augment Israel’s integrated air defense system. This action underscores the United States’ ironclad commitment to the defense of Israel, and to defend Americans in Israel, from any further ballistic missile attacks by Iran. It is part of the broader adjustments the U.S. military has made in recent months, to support the defense of Israel and protect Americans from attacks by Iran and Iranian-aligned militias,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
Fox News’ Greg Wehner contributed to this report.
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