Israel kills Palestinian suspect in Tel Aviv bar shooting; third victim dies
A third Israeli has died following an attack by a Palestinian man who opened fire into a crowded bar Thursday evening in central Tel Aviv. Israeli security forces said they hunted down and killed the attacker early Friday.
The shooting in a downtown area with crowded bars and restaurants caused mass panic in the heart of the city. Two people were killed, and more than 10 were wounded.
A Tel Aviv hospital on Friday afternoon announced that Barak Lufan, 35, who was wounded in the shooting, had succumbed to his injuries.
It was the fourth deadly attack in Israel by Palestinians in three weeks and came at a time of heightened tensions around the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Tens of thousands of Palestinians attended the first Friday prayers of the Muslim holy month in Jerusalem amid a heavy Israeli security presence, with no immediate reports of unrest.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with security officials and announced that a major crossing in the northern West Bank, near the attacker’s hometown, would be closed indefinitely.
“Every murderer will know that we’ll get to him, and anyone who helps terrorists should know that the price he will pay will be unbearable,” Bennett said in a statement.
Israel proceeded with plans to allow Palestinian women, children and men over 40 to enter Jerusalem for prayers. Protests and clashes in the holy city during Ramadan last year eventually ignited an 11-day Gaza war.
Thursday’s shooting took place in a crowded bar on Dizengoff Street, a central thoroughfare that has seen other attacks over the years. Thursday night is the beginning of the Israeli weekend, and the area was packed with people.
The law prohibits extending citizenship or even residency to Palestinian spouses of Israeli citizens if they come from the occupied West Bank or Gaza.
In videos on social media, dozens of terrified people can be seen running through the streets as police searched for the attacker and ordered people to stay indoors. The two killed on the spot were identified as Tomer Morad and Eytam Magini, childhood friends in their late 20s from Kfar Saba, a town north of Tel Aviv.
Hundreds of Israeli police officers, canine units and army special forces conducted a manhunt throughout the night across Tel Aviv, searching building by building through densely populated residential neighborhoods.
Early Friday, authorities found the attacker hiding near a mosque in Jaffa, an Arab neighborhood in southern Tel Aviv, and killed him in a shootout, they said.
The Shin Bet internal security service identified the attacker as Raad Hazem, a 28-year-old Palestinian man from Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The service said he did not belong to an organized militant group, had no prior record and had entered Israel illegally without a permit.
The plan posits a two-state confederation of Israel and an independent Palestine, but it’s unclear whether it has any support among leaders on either side.
The Jenin refugee camp was the scene of one of the deadliest battles of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, 20 years ago. In April 2002, Israeli forces fought Palestinian militants in the camp for nearly three weeks; 23 Israeli soldiers and at least 52 Palestinians, including civilians, were killed, according to the United Nations.
The Israeli military frequently conducts arrest raids in Jenin, often coming under fire. The Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank and coordinates with Israel on security matters, appears to have little control over the area.
With Thursday’s attack, 13 Israelis have been killed in recent weeks, one of the worst waves of violence in years.
The militant Hamas group that rules the Gaza Strip praised the attack but did not claim responsibility. President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the Palestinian Authority, condemned the attack, saying the killing of civilians on either side “can only lead to a further deterioration of the situation.”
The Israel-Hamas war has helped catalyze a newfound sense of Palestinian solidarity that could mark a new moment in the Middle East, activists say.
In all the recent attacks, the perpetrators appear to have acted individually or with minimal support from a small cell. Three are believed to have identified with the extremist group Islamic State. But militant groups do not appear to have trained them or organized the attacks.
Seeking to avoid a repeat of last year’s war, Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian leaders have held a flurry of meetings in recent weeks to discuss ways to maintain calm.
Israel has taken a number of steps aimed at calming tensions, including issuing thousands of additional work permits for Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. But the attacks have set off growing calls in Israel for a tougher crackdown.
Before Thursday’s 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 Muslim body that oversees the site said 80,000 people attended the weekly prayers.
Police mobilized thousands of forces in and around the Old City, home to Al Aqsa and other holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims.
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The mosque in the Old City 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.
Israel has worked to sideline the Palestinian issue in recent years, instead focusing on forging alliances with Arab states against Iran. But the century-old conflict remains as intractable as ever.
Israel captured East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast War. The Palestinians want all three territories to form their future state. The last substantive peace talks broke down more than a decade ago, and Bennett is opposed to Palestinian statehood, though he supports steps to improve the Palestinian economy and quality of life.
Israel annexed East Jerusalem in a move not recognized internationally and considers the entire city to be its capital. It is building and expanding Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, a move most of the international community considers to be illegal.
Israel withdrew soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005. But along with neighboring Egypt, it imposed a crippling blockade on the territory after the militant Hamas group seized power from rival Palestinian forces two years later. Israel and Hamas have fought four wars since then.
Israel says the conflict stems from the Palestinians’ refusal to accept its right to exist as a Jewish state and blames attacks in part on incitement on social media. Palestinians say such attacks are the inevitable result of a nearly 55-year military occupation that shows no sign of ending.
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