biden to address active duty military families gathered at the white house for a holiday barbecue ahead of tonight s fourth of july celebrations here in the nation s capital. be we ll go there live. a pair of mass shootings interrupting the festivities in two major u.s. cities. a gunman in philadelphia accused of killing five and injuring two children, one of the victims just 2 years old. just hours later in texas, three people were shot and killed in a fort worth parking lot. we ll get the latest on the investigations. plus, in israel, eight people are injured after a man rammed a pickup truck into a crowd of people gathered near a tel aviv shopping center. police say the man then jumped out of his vehicle and began stabbing people before being killed by an armed civilian. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. wolf blitzer s off today i m alex marquardt, and this is a situation room special report. we are standing by to hear from
there s going to be a lot of cleanup there, as well. alex? an extraordinary show of force by the israeli military. in tel aviv, there was this ramming attack. tell us how it unfolded. reporter: this afternoon we heard reports of this ramming attack, and we went to see what happened. and it seems as though some sort of pickup truck mounted the pavement outside the shopping center in northwest tel aviv, hitting pedestrians by a bus stop, severely damaging the bus stop, as well. then the attacker got out of the car after it already had crashed and started stabbing people who were around there. we know of at least eight israelis who were injured, one of them critically. and the mamas militant group has taken credit saying the man who was later shot and killed by an armed civilian who was nearby was one of their fighters. but israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu saying that these types of attacks which were in direct connection to what was happening in jenin, he says they will not
then shot and killed the attacker. this comes one day after israel launched its largest military operation in the west bank in more than two decades. the palestinian authority says the violence in jenin has killed ten people there, almost 100 others have been injured. heavy smoke could be seen as israeli forces carried out drone strikes and deployed hundreds of soldiers to target what they say is terrorist infrastructure in a refugee camp. we have more live from tel aviv on the latest. israel is labeling this car ramming attack and stabbing attack a terrorist attack. what can you tell us about what happened there in tel aviv? reporter: yeah, i m in northwest tel aviv where the attack took place in the last two, three hours or so. this is on a kind of main thoroughfare in front of a line of shops. what police have been saying, that this truck that you can see behind me, they say that it mounted the pavement, running
operation could continue for another day or two. and hamas, once this operation started taking started, hamas called on all of its members to strike israel wherever they could. that s what we have today is a member of hamas, hamas claiming this person as one of its fighters, ramming into pedestrians here in northwest tel aviv in what pleolice are calling a terror attack. the plo calling this war crimes, what s happening in jenin. the israelis saying they were after terrorists. what do you see happening going further now? you have hamas claiming this car ramming as a response. do you expect another response from hamas or anyone from inside gaza, as well? reporter: yeah, we ve been asking the israeli military about this, and they say they are prepared for really a response from anywhere, from the west bank, potentially from gaza, or from like what we saw
more. cnn has more live from jerusalem. you were at the scene there in tel aviv earlier, what more are you learning about this? reporter: yeah. this happened in northwest tel aviv. usually a relatively quiet sort of suburb area of tel aviv outside of a shopping center. and we could see this truck that you can see in the cctv video still up on the pavement when we were there. the windshield smashed, most of the front bumper seemed to be taken off. the bus stop it had run into was severely damaged. and the israeli officials saying that eight people were injured as a result, one of them was critically injured. as you noted, they said an armed civilian shot and killed the attacker after he had between on his stabbing spree. the hamas militant group taking credit, saying this person is one of they call them their fighters. an israeli defense official telling me this person is a palestinian man from the west bank who had crossed into tel aviv. they said that he crossed over illegally. no