A gunman opened fire on a busy street in Tel Aviv, Israel on Thursday night, wounding three people. Israeli authorities said the gunman was shot dead by police.
“A terrorist attack was reported in Tel Aviv a few days ago,” Israel Police said on Twitter. “A suspect shot 3 civilians who sustained varying degrees of injuries. The terrorist was neutralized by police officers.”
The gunman has been identified as a 23-year-old Palestinian with ties to Hamas. The condition of the three injured was not immediately known.
“Another terrorist attack took place in the heart of Tel Aviv tonight,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in Rome at the time, said in a statement. “We send our hopes and wishes for a speedy recovery to the injured, and we strengthen the security forces and police who are fighting the terrorists this night and every night.”
Video of the aftermath of the shooting, which took place on Dzengoff Street, showed a large crowd of people, including police, medical personnel and civilians, gathered around wounded people lying in the street. The immediate area was cordoned off by the police.
Ammar Awad/Reuters
A photo on social media showed the attacker believed to be standing in the middle of the road brandishing a pistol. The MADA rescue service said one of the injured was in critical condition, while authorities said security forces in the area quickly killed the shooter.
Amateur video shows the attacker trapped in an alley while several armed Israelis stand around the corner. A man can be heard shouting to a resident to “close the window”. As the suspect fled the alley, he was shot multiple times.
The shooting came after a few hours Israeli military operations Three Palestinian militants were killed in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli security forces said they had raided the village of Jaba to arrest a suspect accused of attacking Israeli soldiers in the area. The suspects opened fire on Israeli soldiers, who returned fire and killed three people, all affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, police said.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified them as Sufyan Fakhouri (26), Nayef Malaisha (25) and Ahmed Fashafsha (22) and said they were shot by Israeli fire during a military operation. A fourth person was hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the head, authorities added.
Israeli police released a photo of assault rifles, pistols, ammunition and explosive devices they said soldiers seized in Jaba, just south of the flashpoint city of Jenin. Gunmen shot down an Israeli drone during the clashes, the army said.
The Jabhat militant group, a new militia of disaffected young Palestinians who have taken up arms against Israeli occupation, said members fired on Israeli forces from a sedan and threw explosive devices — which now sit in the center of the city, broken and bloodied. Residents said Israeli soldiers killed members of the group who had recently been captured by Israel and carried out recent shootings at a nearby checkpoint.