Diaa Hamarsheh
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Diaa Hamarsheh (1996 - March 29, 2022) was a Palestinian mass shooter who killed five people in the Israeli city of Bnei Brak in 2022. He had previously served time in prison for communicating with members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad to try and buy weapons from them.
Biography edit
Hamarsheh, a 26-year-old reported to have been involved with Fatah, was from Ya'abad in the West Bank area of Palestine. Due to Israel's constant mistreatment of people in Palestine, Hamarsheh became radicalised when he was in his teens and began communicating with terror suspects on social media.
In 2011, when he was sixteen years old, Hamarsheh started asking members of Hamas and PIJ how he could get hold of a suicide vest. A supposed Islamic Jihad member offered to sell him one, but repeatedly defrauded him by asking for the money and not delivering the vest despite being paid. A PIJ defector eventually reported him to the police and Hamarsheh was arrested alongside the unnamed contact. Because of his young age, Hamarsheh was allowed to plead guilty to supporting terrorism in return for a reduced sentence.
After his release, Hamarsheh began working in the tobacco industry like the rest of his family. It is believed that he was banned from entering Israel due to his terror conviction. His family believed that Hamarsheh had reformed and he appeared to be rebuilding his life.
However, on March 29, 2022, Hamarsheh illegally entered Israel by driving his car through a hole in a security fence. He was armed with several firearms at the time. At around 8:00 PM, Hamarsheh began firing at nearby buildings. When this failed to kill anyone, he shot and killed two Ukrainian workers named Dimitri Mitrik and Victor Sorokopot. He then killed the driver of a nearby car and tried to shoot a pedestrian, only for the gun to jam. Following this, Hamarsheh drove over to Herzl Street and shot Rabbi Avishai Yehezkel dead. Two police officers then fired at Hamarsheh's car, starting a gun battle which ended in the deaths of Hamarsheh and one of the officers, Amir Khoury.
Following the attack, multiple political leaders in the Middle East condemned Hamarsheh's actions. The IDF have since announced that they intend to demolish his home as a warning to other terrorists.