At least two people were killed and twelve others were injured in a bar in the center of Tel Aviv on Thursday evening. Four people are said to have been taken to hospital in critical condition. The gunman, according to the Israeli newspaper a man of Palestinian descent, was on the run for hours.
At least a thousand police officers, assisted from the air by a helicopter with a floodlight, went on the hunt for the attacker. Residents were urged to stay indoors. “A terrorist opened fire at close range and then fled on foot,” a spokeswoman said. That happened in a cafe in a busy shopping street. The suspected gunman was later killed in the Jaffa city district.
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Koby Brinn, a Spicehaus bartender, saw the chaos unfold outside his bar. “It was crazy. Suddenly there was a huge wave of people running in the street,” he tells Telegraaf correspondent Ralph Dekkers.
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Television showed at least a thousand armed officers walking along the busy nightlife street in search of the perpetrator, while a helicopter flew over the street.
It is the latest attack in a series that has killed 13 people in a month. It is the worst outbreak of violence in Israel in years. The Palestinian group Hamas praised Thursday’s violent action.
There was also a shooting in Dizengoff in 2016. Then two people died in a bar, several were injured.
Ambiance
Dekkers, who is present in Tel Aviv, shares images on Twitter of the situation in the city. He writes on Thursday evening: “Bizarre, they invade every alley and porch, looking for the terrorist.”
