Arab attacker enters hospital as family denies ties to Hamas

JERUSALEM, July 23 (JTA) — An Israeli Arab who drove his car into a group of British tourists and stabbed two people in Jaffa has been admitted to a hospital with a torn spleen. The 31-year-old man from Nazareth had been apprehended immediately after the attack Tuesday night. Members of his family denied reports that he was affiliated with the Hamas fundamentalist group. They said he had gone out of control because of family problems. According to reports, a group of British youth from a Zionist federation tour were standing on a sidewalk in Jaffa, the ancient city adjacent to Tel Aviv, when the man drove his car into them. Eight to 10 youths were lightly injured. The man then got out of the car, drew a knife and tried to stab a mother and daughter who were in a nearby restaurant. An off-duty border police guard drew his gun and subdued the attacker, who was arrested. The injured people were taken to area hospitals. Though four of the injured people told police they believed the incident had to do with an argument over a parking space, investigators are treating it as a terrorist attack. A security source was quoted by the Ha’aretz newspaper as saying that information had been received recently regarding a planned terrorist attack by a Nazareth resident in Tel Aviv. The British youth were part of a Jewish Agency for Israel- sponsored “Israel Experience” program whose participants had just arrived in Israel when the incident occurred. Jewish Agency officials said the British group resumed their planned activities on Wednesday.