Israel security forces scour Tel Aviv after deadly shooting
Jerusalem, Apr 7 (EFE).- Residents of Tel Aviv were urged to remain in their homes Thursday night as Israeli security forces searched for the perpetrator of a shooting spree that left two people dead and 10 others wounded.
The attacker shot up a bar and several other locations in the nightlife district of the seaside metropolis.
Images aired on television and disseminated on social media showed people running in panic as police scrambled to capture the assailant.
Two victims were pronounced dead at the scene and the toll could grow as four of the wounded are listed in serious condition.
More than 1,000 members of the security forces were engaged in the hunt for the suspect, police said, appealing to the public for calm.
Though media outlets speculated that multiple shooters may have been involved, authorities said they were looking for a lone attacker.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Defense Minister Beny Gantz and other senior members of the government were reported to be at work on a response to the fourth attack on Israeli civilians in less than three weeks.
Hamas, the Palestinian group that governs Gaza, called Thursday’s shooting a “natural and legitimate response to the escalation of the occupation’s crimes against our people, our land, Jerusalem and al-Aqsa Mosque.”
But neither Hamas nor any other Palestinian armed faction claimed responsibility.
More than a score of Israelis and Palestinians have died in Israel and the Occupied Territories in political violence over the last 16 days.
Thursday was the sixth day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is often the occasion for heightened tensions between Israel and the Palestinians.
Last year, evictions of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem during Ramadan led to disturbances that in turn sparked the eruption of violence between Israel and Palestinian armed factions that left nearly 250 people dead in Gaza and a dozen more in Israel. EFE
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