Two people dead after gunman opened fire in Tel Aviv bar
A Palestinian man suspected of killing two people in a Tel Aviv bar has been shot dead by Israeli security forces after a long manhunt through the city.
Officers found the man hiding near a mosque in Jaffa, just south of Tel Aviv, Israel’s Shin Bet security agency said. During an exchange of fire, the attacker was killed, the agency said.
Shin Bet identified the shooter as a 28-year-old Palestinian from Jenin on the West Bank who it said was in Israel illegally.
Late on Thursday, the attacker entered a pub on a crowded main street in Tel Aviv’s city centre and began shooting, killing two people and seriously wounding three others before fleeing.
Mayor Ron Huldai earlier said it was suspected the gunman had “nationalistic” motives.
The shooting came amid heightened tensions after a series of deadly attacks carried out by Palestinians.
The militant Hamas group ruling Gaza praised the attack but did not claim responsibility.
Live footage from Israel’s Kan broadcaster showed police flooding the area and training their guns on the upper storey of a building. It also showed an explosion.
Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service said it received reports of a shooting at “several scenes” around downtown Tel Aviv.
It said it had evacuated six people to the nearby Ichilov hospital. The hospital said two people had died and it was treating another eight who were wounded.
At least one shooting took place on Dizengoff Street, a central thoroughfare.
This street has been the scene of several deadly attacks over the years.
Most recently, an Arab citizen of Israel shot and killed two Israelis and wounded several others on the street in January 2016.
The popular nightlife area was packed on Thursday evening, the beginning of the Israeli weekend. Witnesses said they heard gunfire and saw scenes of chaos.
“It’s an atmosphere of war,” said Binyamin Blum, who works in a restaurant near the scene. “Soldiers and police are everywhere … They searched the restaurant, and people are crying.”
Eli Levy, a police spokesperson, urged people to avoid the area.
“A terrorist opened fire at short range and then fled on foot. Several people are wounded,” Levy told Israel’s Channel 13. “Don’t leave your homes. Don’t stick your heads out of the window. Stay off your balconies.”
More than 1,000 police were deployed in Tel Aviv, another police spokesman said.
The prime minister, Naftali Bennett, was monitoring the situation from the Israeli military headquarters, which is also in downtown Tel Aviv, his office said.
In Ichilov hospital, Mark Malfiev, 27, was being treated for a gunshot wound. He said he was passing by the bar when the shooting started.
“I saw the window shatter, people suddenly started running, and I felt getting hit in the back,” he told reporters from a hospital bed. “I felt a lot of blood. I saw blood.”
Tensions have been high after a series of attacks by Palestinian assailants killed 11 people just ahead of the holy Islamic month of Ramadan, which began nearly a week ago.
Last year, protests and clashes during Ramadan ignited an 11-day Gaza war.
Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian leaders have held a flurry of meetings in recent weeks, and Israel has taken a number of steps aimed at calming tensions, including issuing thousands of additional work permits for Palestinians from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Israel has worked to sideline the Palestinian issue in recent years, instead focusing on forging alliances with Arab states against Iran. But the century-old conflict remains as intractable as ever.
Hamas spokesperson Abdelatif Al-Qanou said late on Thursday that “the heroic attack in the heart of the [Israeli] entity has struck the Zionist security system and proved our people’s ability to hurt the occupation.”
On 29 March, a 27-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank methodically gunned down people in the central town of Bnei Brak, killing five.
Two days earlier, a shooting attack by two Islamic State sympathisers in the central city of Hadera killed two police officers.
The week before, an IS sympathiser killed four people in a car-ramming and stabbing attack in the southern city of Beersheba.
The Hadera and Beersheba attacks were carried out by Palestinian citizens of Israel.
The recent attacks appear to have been carried out by lone assailants, perhaps with the help of accomplices. No Palestinian militant group has claimed responsibility, though Hamas has welcomed the attacks.
Source: The Guardian
