A shooting incident took place at around 9 pm this evening in Dizengoff Street in central Tel Aviv, close to Dizengoff Square. As far as is known at this stage, two people have been killed, there are severely to critically wounded, and another four are wounded to varying less severe degrees.
Update: Police and security forces conducted a citywide manhunt after the shooter who was eventually killed during a gunfight outside a mosque near the clock tower in Jaffa. The man was named as Ra'ed Hazzam, a 28 year old Palestinian from the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank. Hazzam, who was in Israel without a permit, is identified with the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
Magen David Adom reported that two men in their thirties were taken to Ichilov Hospital while amid efforts to resuscitate them, but doctors at the hospital declared them dead. A man aged 38, a woman aged 28 and a man aged about 20 were taken to the hospital with severe wounds.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett immediately came to military headquarters in Tel Aviv to receive updates from the scene of the incident. It began at the Ilka Bar in Dizengoff Street. The terrorist walked up to the bar and opened fire. He left and ran down the street firing at passers-by, and then a nearby building.
The streets of central Tel Aviv, are normally thronged with people on a Thursday evening, which is when the weekend in Israel begins. Bars and restaurants, which are normally full, were quickly deserted as police asked the public to be alert, and to remain in their homes.
The incident, which was assumed to have been a terrorist attack, was the latest in a series of attacks in the past two weeks.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on April 7, 2022.
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