Israel on Friday night announced the mobilization of additional police units and reserve soldiers to “combat terrorist attacks” after a car bomb exploded in Tel Aviv, killing one person and wounding five others, AFP reported.

Tel Aviv was bombedPhoto: Ilya Yefimovich / DPA / Profimedia Images

According to police, a police officer and municipal workers who were standing nearby shot the driver when they approached him and realized he was reaching for a gun.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “ordered the Israel Police to mobilize all reserve border police units [armata] to mobilize additional forces to combat terrorist attacks,” his office said in a statement.

After the attack, which occurred on Shabbat night and during Passover week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “ordered the Israel Police to mobilize all reserve border police units, and [armata] to mobilize additional forces to combat terrorist attacks,” his office said in a statement.

Two British-Israeli sisters were killed on Friday in an armed attack on their car in the occupied West Bank, Israeli authorities said, AFP reported.

The attack comes as Israel is on high alert in Jerusalem after a day of violence on the border with Lebanon and Gaza.

The Israeli military said soldiers arrived at the scene of a collision between Israeli and Palestinian vehicles near the Jewish settlement of Hamra and found that three people in the Israeli vehicle had been shot dead.

Two sisters were killed and their mother was seriously injured, officials said.

“Military personnel are blocking the roads adjacent to the place of the armed attack. The pursuit of terrorists has begun,” the army said in a statement.

The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas praised the attack but did not claim responsibility.

Israel attacked the Gaza Strip and Lebanon at dawn on Friday, saying it was targeting Hamas targets, after dozens of rockets were fired at Israel from the two territories a day earlier.

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli airstrikes began even before midnight.

It is the latest episode in a sharp rise in Middle East tensions since Wednesday, following a relative lull in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the start of Ramadan on March 23.