Seven people were killed and 16 others were wounded in a shooting attack in the city of Jaffa in central Israel on Tuesday, emergency services reported.

The police have identified two of the victims as 30-year-old Lod resident Shahar Goldman and 33-year-old Tel Aviv resident Inbar Segev-Vigder. One of the victims is a 17-year-old girl, the police added. Six of those wounded are in serious condition, four were moderately wounded and two were lightly wounded.
Shachar Goldman, who was a dancer, is survived by her husband Tai, her parents and three sisters. People paid tribute to the 33-year-old Goldman’s memory at the Havana Music Club in Tel Aviv and told Haaretz that she had “a captivating smile and great energy,” and that she “touched many lives.”
Inbar Segev-Vigder, 24, was the owner of a fitness and Pilates studio and worked as a coach at a CrossFit gym in Tel Aviv. A graduate of the Wingate Institute for Physical Education and Sportse, Segev-Vigder is survived by her husband Ya’ari and their nine-month-old son.

Her husband told in an interview with national broadcaster Kan on Wednesday that Segev-Vigder was carrying their son as the attack happened.

“Our miracle is that our son came out of it unharmed, really without a scratch. He was covered with blood a bit, but otherwise unhurt,” he said.

Nadia Sokolenco, 40, immigrated to Israel from Moldova 18 years ago. She is survived by her husband and 6-year-old daughter. She worked as an office manager at a high-tech firm, previously working as a stylist.

Haaretz reporter Rafaella Goichman, a close friend of Sokolenco, described her as “the embodiment of love of life, light and cosmic optimism.”
Revital Bronstein, 24, was earning a master’s degree in computer science. Before that, she attended an agricultural school, where she won awards related to computing and artificial intelligence. She was also an artist who created comics.
Ilia Nozadze, a 42-year-old Georgian citizen, was married and had two children. He worked as a truck driver.
26-year-old Yona Ionas Karussis, a Greek and Israeli citizen originally from Thessaloniki, who lived in Jerusalem and studied architecture in Tel Aviv, is the sixth named victim of the attack. He is survived by his parents, both doctors who immigrated to Israel.

According to police, one of the assailants was armed with a rifle and the other with a knife, and they attacked light rail passengers and passers-by near a station on Jaffa’s Jerusalem Boulevard.

Police say that the two assailants, later identified as Muhammad Khalef Saher Rajab and Hassan Muhammad Hassan Tamimi, were both in their 20s from the city of Hebron in the West Bank. They did not have a permit to be in Israel. At least one of them was shot dead by a passerby and a municipal security guard.

Tel Aviv district commander Haim Sargrof said that police ruled out that there were additional assailants after large police and IDF forces conducted extensive searches in the area.

A senior police officer said that footage from security cameras in the area shows that the assailants came out of a nearby mosque, attacked passers-by on Jerusalem Boulevard and killed two of them. Afterwards, at least one of them boarded the light rail car, killed four passengers and got off. According to police, the two were finally shot in the street.

Large police forces and the IDF counterterrorism unit conducted searches in the area, including a raid on the mosque from which the assailants emerged. Several individuals present were detained on suspicion of involvement in the attack.

In response to the attack, the IDF imposed a blockade on Hebron, the hometown of the attackers. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich stated that during tonight’s cabinet meeting, he would demand that the terrorists’ family members be deported “to Gaza tonight” and that their homes be demolished. “Without the High Court of Justice and without B’Tselem,” he added.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said, “If it turns out there is a connection to the mosque [from which the attackers emerged], the message is clear – it should be shut down and demolished.” He added, “We need to investigate; we’re not rushing to conclusions.”
An eyewitness who was at the scene of the attack said: “I saw a terrorist shoot a girl who was on the floor and another girl, then I saw the terrorist shoot a man on a bicycle who fell to the floor, but I don’t think he wasn’t hurt. At that moment a civilian arrived with a gun and shot the terrorist.”
Another eyewitness who was at a synagogue at the time of the attack said that he heard shots from an automatic weapon. “Among the worshippers were medics who volunteer at the MDA. We treated a man who was wounded in the synagogue and then ran to the street to help others who were wounded,” he said.

Another eyewitness who spoke to Haaretz said that he heard gunshots when he was in a store near the scene of the attack, and went out into the street to help administer first aid. “There was an injured girl on the road, there were already several people taking care of her, and then there were more shots from nearby,” he said. “We dragged the injured woman to a nearby restaurant’s kitchen and blocked the door with a heavy object. I put a tourniquet on her.”

Civilians near the scene of the shooting attack, in Jaffa, on Tuesday.Credit: Itai Ron

He added that after about 15 minutes security forces arrived in large numbers and began knocking on the door, and that the injured woman was conscious when she was taken to receive further treatment.

The attack occurred about 40 minutes before rocket sirens were activated in Jaffa due to the missile barrage from Iran. As the alarms sounded, many police officers sought shelter in nearby buildings, leading to a suspension of the searches in the area. Police Commissioner Danny Levy, who had arrived at the scene, also entered a building and continued commanding the forces from inside until the alarms ceased.

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