A Palestinian man shot and killed two people in a bar in the center of the Israeli city of Tel Aviv during the night from Thursday to Friday. At least twelve others were injured, at least four of whom are in critical condition. This is reported by international news agencies. The gunman was killed in a shootout with Israeli officers. It is the fourth attack in Tel Aviv in three weeks. The authorities speak of a terrorist act.
The gunman, a 28-year-old man from the Palestinian city of Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, fled the bar on Tel Aviv’s busy main street after opening fire. After an hours-long manhunt by Israeli security forces, the man was found in the southern Jaffa neighborhood and killed by police in a shootout.
It is the fourth attack in Israel in three weeks, in which a total of 13 people have now been killed. Last week, an Arab man shot and killed five people in a city near Tel Aviv. The week before, four people died in the southern city of Beersheba, and two officers in Hadera, north of Tel Aviv. In addition, Palestinians have been shot dead by Israeli forces in several incidents in the West Bank in recent weeks.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called the attacks a “wave of Arab terror” on Twitter. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz told Reuters news agency on Friday that Israel will expand its operations and that the attackers and those who send them will pay a “heavy price.”