A Palestinian opened fire into a crowded bar in central Tel Aviv, killing at least two people and wounding several others. The attacker, who was from the occupied West Bank, eluded police for hours before he was killed in a shootout with security forces early Friday, officials said.
It was the fourth deadly attack in Israel by Palestinians in less than three weeks and came at a time of heightened tensions around the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Protests and clashes in Jerusalem during Ramadan last year eventually ignited an 11-day Gaza war.
The militant Hamas group that rules the Gaza Strip praised the attack but did not claim responsibility.
Israeli security services on Friday killed the gunman who shot dead two people and wounded several more during a shooting spree in the coastal city of Tel Aviv, officials said.
"The terrorist who carried out yesterday's armed attack in Tel Aviv has been located and neutralised," officials said, adding the man -- a Palestinian from the occupied West Bank -- was killed near a mosque in the Jaffa neighbourhood.
The number of wounded was not immediately clear. Speaking on Israeli TV, Eshed put the number at more than a dozen. The attack happened at a bar on Dizengoff Street, a popular dining area in the center of the city, an Israeli police commander said.
The two people killed were men who were both around 30-years-old, a spokesperson for the Magen David Adom emergency services said.
Tel Aviv's Ichilov hospital, where most of the casualties were taken, said doctors were fighting to save the lives of four people who were wounded.
The shooting is the latest in a series of violent incidents that have put Israel and the Palestinian territories on edge. Eleven Israelis were killed in three previous attacks, making this one of the worst waves of violence in years.
Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian leaders have held a flurry of meetings in recent weeks, and Israel has taken a number of steps aimed at calming tensions, including issuing thousands of additional work permits for Palestinians from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Prior to the attack, Israel had said it would allow women, children and men over 40 from the occupied West Bank to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in east Jerusalem on Friday, the first weekly prayers of Ramadan. Tens of thousands were expected to attend.
The mosque is the third holiest site in Islam and sits on a hilltop that is the most sacred site for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount. The holy site has long been a flashpoint for Israeli-Palestinian violence.
(with inputs from AP)
