Tel Aviv shooting suspect ‘killed’ in northern Israel

The man wanted for the murder of three people in a Tel Aviv shooting spree has been shot and killed by Israeli police Friday in the northern part of the country, according to Fox News’ Jerusalem bureau.

Israel will not release the body of Tel Aviv shooter Nashat Melhem until the family agrees with police requirements that the funeral does not turn into a rally in support of terrorism. After seeing police barricades ahead, Milhem had reportedly killed Shaaban outside the Mandarin Hotel, before driving the cab himself to Namir Road, where he abandoned it outside a bus stop.

Melhem was arrested in 2007 for attacking an Israeli soldier and served five years in jail.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated security forces for “acting relentlessly, methodically, and professionally to locate and neutralize the terrorist”.

Reflecting the official uncertainty about the motive, Netanyahu had previously referred to the fugitive as a “murderer” rather than “terrorist” in public statements.

Nashat Melhem was suspected of being the gunman who shot and killed two people at a bar in central Tel Aviv and wounded seven others. “We are proud of our Palestinian people in the 1948 lands”, the ministry said in a statement, referring to Arab-Israelis. Milhem apparently obtained the licensed semi-automatic weapon he used by stealing it from his father, a security guard.

Since Oct. 1, 22 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean were killed in Palestine from stabbings, auto ramming and gunfire targeting security forces and civilians. Israeli and Palestinian clashes have resulted in deaths on both sides. Before the attack, he turned off his cellphone and left it between residential buildings in Tel Aviv, where it was found by a schoolgirl after the shootings, according to reports.

Israeli policemen stand on guard in the village of Arara, northern Israel, Friday, Jan. 8, 2016. The cabbie drove to north Tel Aviv, where Milhem worked.

The police confirmed they had surrounded a building in which he had been hiding in Arara.

No Israeli forces were injured during the operation. As the special forces closed in on him in the residential area, he came out shooting, she said.