2016 Tel Aviv stabbings

On 8 March 2016, an attacker carried out a stabbing spree in and around the Jaffa Port area of Tel Aviv, Israel, killing one person and wounding ten others. The attack occurred while then-US Vice President Joe Biden was meeting with former Israeli President Shimon Peres in Tel Aviv. According to police, the assailant first attacked people in the harbor area and later moved to a nearby restaurant, where four more people were wounded. Ambulance personnel reported that five of the victims suffered serious wounds. The attack lasted approximately 20 minutes and ended when police shot and killed the assailant following a chase along the beach promenade.

The person killed was Taylor Force, a 28-year-old American citizen. Force was a graduate of the New Mexico Military Institute and West Point (2009) who served as a US Army officer until 2014, including deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation New Dawn, and Operation Enduring Freedom. At the time of his death, he was an MBA student traveling with a group of graduate students from the Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management on a trip focused on global entrepreneurship. Eleven other people were injured in the attack, including a pregnant woman, an Arab Israeli, and a Palestinian man who was residing in Israel illegally.

The attacker was identified as Bashar Masalha, a 21-year-old man from the city of Qalqilya in the Palestinian territories, who was residing in Israel illegally at the time. Masalha was killed by police at the scene, so no criminal prosecution took place. His family reportedly received a monthly payment from the Palestinian Authority Martyr's Fund equal to several times the average monthly wage in the Palestinian territories.

In the aftermath, the Israel Defense Forces announced closures on West Bank villages linked to attackers involved in this and related incidents that occurred around the same time. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held security consultations with senior defense and security officials, resulting in decisions to close gaps in the separation barrier near Jerusalem, complete barrier construction in the Tarqumiyah area, restrict certain Palestinian media outlets, and deny work permits to family members of assailants. Israeli police also launched a broader operation against Palestinian residents in Israel without legal status, arresting more than 250 people, along with several employers and drivers, in the days following the attack.

The killing of Taylor Force led to US legislative action: the Taylor Force Act, co-sponsored in the US Senate in 2016, sought to condition American economic aid to the Palestinian Authority on ending payments through the Martyr's Fund to individuals who commit acts of terrorism and to their families. The Act was signed into law by President Donald Trump on 23 March 2018. The attack was condemned by Israel and the United States and was praised by the Palestinian organizations Fatah, Hamas, and the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine.