ANT KATZ

Three people were killed in a shooting attack in the West Bank, including an American yeshiva student, hours after two Jewish men were stabbed to death in Tel Aviv at a prayer service. The five deaths in the attacks, reportedly carried out by Palestinians, are the most on a single day since the latest spate of terror attacks by Palestinians began last month.

JTA reports that in the West Bank attack, near the Alon Shvut settlement in the Gush Etzion bloc, the yeshiva student killed was Ezra Schwartz, 18, of Sharon, Massachusetts.

Also reportedly killed was a Jewish-Israeli in his 50s and a Palestinian. At least seven other people were wounded, including some American tourists.

RIGHT: Israeli security forces and rescue personnel at the scene of a drive-by shooting near the West Bank settlement of Alon Shvut on Thursday  November 19  -PIC: Gershon Elinson/Flash90

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote on his Facebook page that the hand behind this “was the same radical Islam that struck in Paris and threatens all of Europe. Whoever condemned the attacks in France needs to condemn the attacks in Israel. It’s the same terror. Whoever does not do this is a hypocrite and blind,” he wrote.

A spokesman for President Reuven Rivlin, Jason Pearlman, told Jewish Report Online last night that after the attacks Rivlin had said: “Our hearts are pained and broken. The pain is the same pain. The mourning is the same mourning in Tel Aviv, in Paris, in Gush Etzion, and in the Sinai. The pornography of death is striking across the world.

“Fundamentalist Islamism is a danger to all free nations everywhere, and we must fight against it unequivocally. My thoughts are with the bereaved families and the injured at this terrible time,” Rivlin said.

Shot into full minivan

At least one attacker, reported to be a Palestinian, shot into a minivan full of people as well as another car near a traffic junction and then rammed his car into several other cars and bystanders, according to reports.

One shooter reportedly got out of his car and was shot and injured by security forces.

A group of American yeshiva students told Israel’s Channel 2 that they had been in the minivan delivering snacks to soldiers stationed in the area when they came under fire, killing their fellow student.

Three hours earlier, the attack in Tel Aviv occurred next to the entrance of an office used as a synagogue in the Panorama office building during afternoon services, Israel’s Channel 2 reported live from the scene.

One man died at the scene and two were injured; one later succumbed at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. The other wounded man was in a serious to moderate condition at the same hospital, where the attacker is being treated.

Aharon Yesiab, a rabbi from Tel Aviv, was identified as one of those killed. He worked at the Panorama building and was stabbed when he left a prayer service there. The second victim was later identified as Aviram Reuven, 51.

The Palestinian assailant who was wounded while being apprehended by civilians, is in police custody. Police searched for a second alleged assailant, leading to the closing of several roads in the city, but later concluded that there was only one attacker.

Haaretz reported that the assailant received a permit to enter Israel from the West Bank about a month ago and told police he entered Israel with the intent to attack and kill Jews.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote in a post on his Facebook page – offering his sympathy to the families of the victims. “Behind these terrorist attacks stands radical Islam, which seeks to destroy us, the same radical Islam that struck in Paris and threatens all of Europe. Whoever condemned the attacks in France needs to condemn the attacks in Israel. It’s the same terror. Whoever does not do this is a hypocrite and blind.”

On Thursday evening, Netanyahu held a security consultation with officials from the Israel Defence Forces, the Israel Police and the Shin Bet Security Service, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office. Among the issues discussed were: what action to take in the Hebron area, from where most terrorists have set out recently, including both of Thursday’s attacks.

The Tel Aviv attack comes a day after the one-year anniversary of the Palestinian terror attack on a shul in the Har Nof neighbourhood of Jerusalem that left six dead – five worshippers and a Druze police officer. One of the victims died last month after remaining in a coma for nearly a year.