ROME – The body of Alessandro Parini, an Italian lawyer who was killed at age 36 in a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv on Friday, was returned to Rome on Tuesday afternoon, officials said. 

 The plane bringing back Parini’s body arrived at Ciampino airport at around 2 p.m. 

 Parini died from the impact caused by a car, being driven by the Arab-Israeli Yousef Abu Jaber, which was slammed into him and a group of people on the Tel Aviv waterfront. Police officials have confirmed that no bullets were found but substantial head and back wounds consistent with violent impact were found on Parini’s body. 

 Local judicial sources reported that the attacker was shot dead by police. 

 Following initial examinations of the attacker’s body, doctors have ruled out the theory supported by Abu Jaber’s family, that Abu Jaber suffered a stroke at the wheel. Following this, a government spokesman said that the police “have been of the opinion from the beginning that it was a terrorist attack. The more we investigate, the more we come to the fact that it was an attack motivated by nationalistic reasons.”

 Israeli police sources clarified that their investigations show that Abu Jaber drove from where he lived in Kafr Kassem to the Tel Aviv waterfront at high speed. This, according to the police, strengthens the position that this was a terrorist attack and that Abu Jaber acted in a “premeditated way” and intended to run over Israelis. 

 “The driver quickly manoeuvred between the concrete blocks on the pavements to purposefully reach the bike lane and hit as many people as possible,” said a police spokesman. 

 “While driving wildly,” he continued, “he intentionally accelerated and hit a group of people. He then continued to accelerate and hit yet another group.”

 In Israeli newspapers, the government's obituary for Parini reads: “The government and people of Israel mourn the death of Alessandro Parini, an Italian citizen, who was killed in a terrorist attack on Friday night on the Tel Aviv waterfront by a bloody terrorist. The government and people of Israel participate in the unspeakable heartbreak of the stricken family.”

cw