An attacker opened fire on a crowded restaurant in downtown Tel Aviv on Thursday night, killing at least two people and injuring several others before fleeing a dense residential area, Israeli officials said.
Police said there were “indications” that it was a terrorist attack – the fourth deadly attack in Israel in less than three weeks during heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions.
The Hamas military group, which runs the Gaza Strip, praised the attack but did not take responsibility.
Hours after the shooting, the suspected attacker remained at large. Hundreds of Israeli police, canine teams and army special forces conducted a massive search in the center of Tel Aviv, passing building after building through densely populated residential areas.
Damaged cafe on Dizengoff Street in the center of the Israeli city of Tel Aviv on Thursday. (Jack Gez / AFP / Getty Images)
Amihai Eshed, a Tel Aviv police commander, said the shooter opened fire in a crowded bar at around 9pm and then fled the scene.
“Our working assumption is that he is still nearby,” he told reporters.
“Currently, there are indications that this is a terrorist attack, but I have to be very sensitive about this and say that we are checking other traces.
The Israeli emergency service Magen David Adom announced that it had received reports of shooting in “several scenes” in the center of Tel Aviv. It says two men aged about 30 were killed. Seven other people were injured, three of them seriously, the statement said.
At least one shooting took place on Dizengoff Street, the main thoroughfare. Dizengoff Street has been the scene of several deadly attacks over the years. Most recently, an Arab citizen of Israel shot dead two Israelis and wounded several others in the street in January 2016.
The popular nightlife area was crowded on Thursday night, at the beginning of the Israeli weekend.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was monitoring the situation from the Israeli military headquarters, which is also located in the center of Tel Aviv, his office said.
Israeli security forces are looking for attackers after an attack in the center of Tel Aviv, Israel on Thursday. The shooting took place in a busy area with several bars and restaurants. (Ariel Shalit / Associated Press)
Tensions are high after a series of attacks by Palestinian attackers killed 11 people just before the holy Islamic month of Ramadan, which began nearly a week ago. Last year, protests and clashes in Jerusalem during Ramadan sparked an 11-day war in Gaza.
Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian leaders have held a series of meetings in recent weeks, and Israel has taken a number of steps to defuse tensions, including issuing thousands of additional Palestinian work permits from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Prior to the attack, Israel said it would allow women, children and men over 40 from the occupied West Bank to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem on Friday, the first weekly prayers of Ramadan. Tens of thousands were expected to attend.
The mosque is the third holiest site in Islam and is located on top of a hill, which is the holiest site for the Jews, who call it the Temple Mount. The holy site has long been a hotbed of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
In recent years, Israel has been working to eliminate the Palestinian question instead of focusing on alliances with Arab states against Iran. But the age-old conflict remains unresolved as always.
The first to arrive arrived at the scene of the shooting in central Tel Aviv, Israel on Thursday. (Jack Gez / AFP / Getty Images)
Hamas spokesman Abdelatif al-Kanu said late Thursday that “the heroic attack on the heart of the (Israeli) entity hit the Zionist security system and proved the ability of our people to harm the occupation.”
Recent attacks
On March 29, a 27-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank methodically shot dead people in the central city of Bnei Brak, killing five. Two days earlier, two police officers were killed in a shooting by two Islamic State sympathizers in the central city of Hadera.
A week earlier, an IDF supporter killed four people in a car attack and stabbing in the southern town of Beersheva. The attacks in Hadera and Beersheba were carried out by Palestinian citizens of Israel.
The latest attacks appear to have been carried out by lone attackers, perhaps with the help of accomplices. No Palestinian group has taken them, although Hamas has welcomed the attacks.
Israel says the conflict stems from the Palestinians’ refusal to accept its existence as a Jewish state and blames the attacks in part for inciting social media. Palestinians say such attacks are an inevitable result of nearly 55 years of military occupation that show no signs of ending.
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