Shin Bet Probe: Tel Aviv Car Ramming was Terror Attack

A car-ramming incident in Tel Aviv earlier this month was a terror attack carried out by a PA Arab driver, the Israel Police and Shin Bet security agency said on Monday.

The driver of the vehicle, 31-year-old Ali Hamed, from the village of Silwad near Ramallah, struck a moped rider on Tel Aviv’s Abarbanel Street on Dec. 8.

Hamed had crossed the Green Line illegally while driving a car that had been taken off the road and had Israeli license plates stolen from another vehicle, and he had no driver’s license, police found.

A Shin Bet investigation concluded that Hamed acted out of a nationalistic motive. During questioning, he confessed to deciding to take revenge for his cousin, who was killed in a gunfight with Israeli security forces a day earlier while he was attempting to carry out a shooting attack.

Hamed was charged on Monday with terrorist offenses.