2024 Jaffa shooting

On 1 October 2024, two gunmen affiliated with Hamas carried out a shooting attack in Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Israel. The attack occurred amid heightened tensions between Israel and the occupied West Bank following the 7 October 2023 attacks, which killed approximately 1,200 people and resulted in about 251 hostages being taken. In the intervening period, roughly 40 Israeli citizens and security personnel had been killed in related attacks in Israel and the West Bank, including a 30 November 2023 shooting at a Jerusalem bus stop in which civilian responder Yuval Castleman killed one attacker before being fatally shot by responding Israeli troops who mistook him for a militant.

Prior to the Jaffa attack, the two assailants entered the Al-Nuzha Mosque through the women's entrance, stashed bags in the bathroom, and threatened worshippers not to leave, with one shouting a warning while holding an M16 rifle. Congregants called police after the men departed. At approximately 7:00 pm, the two men, armed with firearms and knives, disembarked from the light rail at Jerusalem Boulevard and opened fire on pedestrians near Erlich Station. Israel's emergency medical service, Magen David Adom, reported receiving calls about gunfire injuries at 7:01 pm. Initial reports described the attack spanning three locations: Jerusalem Boulevard, Yefet Street, and Gaza Street. A passerby, identified as Lev Kreitman, an Israeli Army reservist recently returned from a six-month deployment to Gaza and a survivor of the 7 October 2023 Nova music festival attack, along with a security guard, returned fire and killed both gunmen shortly after the attack began.

Seven people were killed and seventeen wounded. Among the dead were three foreign nationals, one each from Greece, Georgia, and Moldova; the deceased ranged in age from 24 to 42. The injured were treated at Wolfson Medical Center and Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center. The perpetrators were identified as Muhammad Chalaf Sahar Rajab and Hassan Muhammad Hassan Tamimi, Hamas operatives from Hebron in the occupied West Bank, aged 19 and 25. Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigades claimed responsibility the following day.

In response, the Israel Defense Forces imposed a closure on Hebron and detained several people suspected of aiding the attackers, including in obtaining the rifle and moving the attackers into Israel without a permit. Five days later, a separate attack occurred at the Beersheba central bus station, killing one and wounding thirteen before the assailant was killed by IDF troops.

Israeli officials responded publicly: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered condolences to victims' families; National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called for stronger action against militants and suggested a nearby mosque could be closed if linked to the attack, drawing criticism from Yesh Atid MK Merav Ben Ari; and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for deporting the gunmen's family members to Gaza and demolishing their homes. A statement from the Palestinian community in Greece regarding one victim's IDF service was condemned by Greek Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis.