Israeli knife attacker kills 3 people, flees

JERUSALEM — An attacker went on a stabbing rampage in a town near Tel Aviv on Thursday night, killing at least three people and wounding four others before fleeing in a vehicle, Israeli authorities said.

Police said they suspected it was a Palestinian militant attack and launched a widespread search for the assailant, setting up roadblocks and dispatching a helicopter. The rampage, coming on Israel’s Independence Day, was the latest in a string of deadly attacks in Israeli cities in recent weeks.

The identity of the assailant was not yet known. But Israeli-Palestinian tensions have soared in recent weeks, with attacks in Israel, military operations in the occupied West Bank and violence at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site. The site, home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, was the scene of new unrest earlier Thursday.

Police said they were still searching for the attacker. They called on the public to avoid the area, and urged people to report suspicious vehicles or people to them.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, praised the attack and linked it to violence at the Jerusalem holy site.

“The storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque can’t go unpunished,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said. “The heroic operation in Tel Aviv is a practical translation of what the resistance had warned against.”