Two people died in a shooting in central Tel Aviv, Israel on Thursday evening. Another eight injured were hospitalized: four of them needed surgery and are in serious condition. This is the first balance of yet another terrorist attack – the fourth in the last two weeks – against Israeli citizens. The details were reported by the Times of Israel, which cited sources from Ichilov Medical Center.
Also according to the Israeli newspaper, the Tel Aviv police said that an assailant from the shooting that took place in the center may still be in the area, then urged people to stay inside the buildings and close the doors. It is not yet clear how many assailants were who fired in different places near the central and very crowded Dizzengoff street. From some testimonies it seems that it may have been a single terrorist. Police spokesman Eli Levy told Channel 13 that “a terrorist opened fire at close range and then fled on foot. Numerous people were injured ».
All public transport in the center was blocked as agents and security forces search for the shooter. Police reportedly surrounded a building on Dizengoff Street, where the assailant may have been hiding.
Prime Minister Neftali Bennet is monitoring the situation from the army headquarters. The tension in the country is very high after the recent attacks carried out by Palestinian militants have caused the death of eleven people.
The Palestinian Islamic movement of Hamas praised the attack in central Tel Aviv in which two Israeli civilians lost their lives. “Resistance operations are a natural response to Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people,” senior Hamas official Mushir al-Masri told al-Jazeera television. However, the terrorist group did not claim responsibility for the attack.