PA condemns Tel Aviv terror attack

Palestinian Authority blasts vehicular terror attack outside Tel Aviv nightclub. Nablus sources: This was act of a lone individual. PA does not support terror

Elior Levy|Published: 08.29.11 , 18:33

The Palestinian Authority has officially censured the terror attack which took place outside Haoman 17 nightclub in Tel Aviv overnight.

Eight people were wounded in the terror attack, which took place in the wee hours of Monday morning. The 20-year-old perpetrator was arrested after he rammed into a Border Guard roadblock stationed near the nightclub and stabbed several police officers and security guards.

Related stories:

"The Presidency condemns any attacks on civilians, including the one early this morning," Ramallah said in a statement.

In the same breath, however, the Palestinian Authority also condemned the IDF strikes in Gaza and the raids conducted by Israeli security forces in the West Bank and in east Jerusalem.

Scene of the attack (Photo: Eli Senyor)

The terrorist is believed to be a resident of the West Bank city of Nablus. Despite the arrest, a senior source in the office of the Governor of Nablus told Ynet that it is still unclear who is behind the attack: "We’ve managed to obtain the names of two people who could, potentially, be behind the attack, but one of them is not listed as a resident of Nablus."

According to the source, the District Coordination Office gave us a third name from a village south of Hebron, but we couldn’t find him there."

Nablus residents, he added, were stunned by the reports suggesting that a resident of their city had perpetrated such an attack.

"People here no longer support terror attacks. This was done by one lone individual and he couldn’t have been sent by a terror group, because the overall air in the Palestinian Authority is against terror attacks," he said.

A senior source in the Palestinian security forces reiterated that there were still no new details about the terrorist's identity.

On Monday evening, the Petah Tikva District Court remanded the suspect for an additional 24 hours.

The court also placed the entire investigation under a gag order, following a motion by the police to that effect.

Washington also condemned the attack. A State Department statement issues on Monday night said that the US "strongly condemns" the attack on innocent Israelis in Tel Aviv, adding that attacks on civilians in Israel or anywhere else in the world "could never be justified."