Tel Aviv
A Palestinian gunman opened fire at passersby and vehicles outside the Israeli city Tel Aviv late Tuesday, killing five people in the third shooting or knife attack in a week, prompting the police to raise its alert level nationwide to “the highest possible.”
The shooter was shot dead by police during the incident that took place in the city of Bnei Brak, a crowded suburb of Tel Aviv, said the police and the Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel’s national emergency medical service.
“The terrorist is confirmed dead,” Police Spokesman Eli Levi told the state-owned Kan TV news. The perpetrator was armed with an M-16 rifle, said another police statement.
The police said in a statement that the shooter was a Palestinian resident from the occupied West Bank who stayed in Israel without permits.
Kan TV news reported that the attacker, a 27-year-old man, was previously convicted of illegal arms trade and served about six months in prison before being released in late 2015.
A paramedic with the United Hatzalah rescue service told Channel 12 that at least one of the fatalities was a policeman.
Eyewitnesses told local television that a gunman on a scooter opened fire at the balconies of apartments and then at people in the street.
No group has yet to claim responsibility for the attack, the third deadly one in Israel in a week.
