[IsraelTimes] At least 10 injured in shooting attack on crowded Dizengoff Street; police and military throng area and conduct door-to-door searches, tell people to stay inside
Two people were killed and several were maimed as a gunman opened fire on a bar in central Tel Aviv Thursday evening in a deadly terror attack, the latest eruption of violence to strike Israel in recent weeks.
The shooting took place on Dizengoff Street, turning an area crowded with people out for Thursday night at bars, restaurants and cafes lining the popular thoroughfare into a scene of chaos and panic.
As the street filled with ambulances and rescuers, police carried out searches for the gunman, who witnesses said expeditiously departed at a goodly pace and disappeared into nearby alleys, going door to door and telling people to stay inside and lock their doors.
The attack began when the gunman walked up to Ilka, a popular bar with a large outside seating section, and opened fire.
"We dove under the tables and people started crying, it was horrible," said Evelyn Gertz, 34, who was having dinner next door.
Ten people were rushed to the nearby Ichilov Hospital with gunshot wounds, two of whom were later declared dead, the hospital said. They were both reported to be civilians in their 20s.
Four others were listed as critical and were undergoing surgery, according to the hospital. Two were seriously injured, and two were mildly hurt.
Another four people with mild injuries were taken to Wolfson Hospital in Holon and Sheba Hospital at Tel Hashomer.
Police initially described the incident as a nationalistically motivated terror attack, though the identity of the attacker or attackers was not immediately known.
Later, Tel Aviv police chief Ami Eshed noted that other avenues were being investigated as well. "From what we know there are signs this was terror," he said.
A worker at Ilka told Channel 12 news that he saw at least two attackers, at least one of whom opened fire with a pistol. Police later said they believed there was only one terrorist; reports said he was a West Bank Paleostinian.
Taking part in the search were over 1,000 cops as well as officers from the Shin Bet, and military special forces, the spokesperson said. Public transportation in central Tel Aviv was shut down, and police set up checkpoints on highways leading from the city toward the West Bank and northern Israel.
Tel Aviv terrorist killed in shootout with police special forces
[IsraelTimes] The terrorist who carried out the deadly shooting attack in Tel Aviv is killed in a shootout with officers from the Yamam police counter-terrorism unit and the Shin Bet internal security service.
The man, who sparked a massive, hours-long manhunt after killing two and wounding more than 10 at a Tel Aviv bar, was found hiding near a closed mosque in Jaffa, the Shin Bet says.
The agency says he is a resident of the Jenin district of the northern West Bank.
There are no Israeli casualties in the firefight.
Shin Bet: Terrorist entered Israel illegally, had no previous criminal record
[IsraelTimes] The Shin Bet security service says the terrorist who opened fire at a bar in Tel Aviv, killing two and wounding numerous others, did not have a permit to be in Israel and entered illegally.
The Shin Bet also says that Ra’ad Hazem, a 28-year-old from Jenin, had “no clear organizational affiliation, no security background and no previous arrests.”
Father of Tel Aviv terrorist: God, liberate Al-Aqsa ‘from the occupiers’
[IsraelTimes] The father of the suspected terrorist who killed two people and wounded numerous others in Tel Aviv last night is praising his son’s actions.
“You will see the victory soon… God, liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the occupiers,” he is quoted as saying by Hebrew media outside the family’s home in Jenin.
Reports say the father was a former officer in the Palestinian security services. 
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