An assassin shot at patrons of a pub on busy Dizengoff Street on Thursday evening, police said. According to a local hospital, at least two people died and eight others were injured.
Terror in the center of Tel Aviv! The assassination took place on busy Dizengoff Street, where there are several bars and restaurants. Security forces exchanged gunfire with an assassin, the Zaka rescue service reported. He should be on the run.
Police urged people to stay away from the scene of the crime. Residents were asked to lock themselves in their homes and not to stand by the windows. “We jumped under the tables and people started crying, it was terrible,” Evelyn Gertz (34), who ate dinner near the attack, told the Times of Israel.
Gertz continues: “Then we ran to the back of the restaurant, where a police officer guided us. We are now staying in an apartment building next to the bar we were in.”
A local bartender told the Jerusalem Post: “It was crazy. I was sitting at the bar looking out and all of a sudden there was this huge wave of people running into the street.”
Other witnesses told the AFP news agency about chaotic scenes in the center of Tel Aviv. “There is an atmosphere like in war, soldiers and police officers everywhere. People are crying and running in all directions,” said Binyamin Blum, who works at a restaurant near the site of the attack.
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Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (50) is monitoring the situation from Israel’s military headquarters, also located in downtown Tel Aviv, his office said.
Middle East analyst Joe Truzman released a video from the West Bank. You can see it: Palestinians celebrating the terrorist attack by honking their horns.
The situation in Israel is tense: two weeks ago there were repeated terrorist attacks. Eleven people died within a week. Bennett then spoke of a new wave of terror and called on Israelis with gun licenses to carry their guns with them to be on the safe side.