Israel Asks PA For Help In Capturing Tel Aviv Shooter

Two Israeli men were killed and two others were seriously wounded Friday at a bar in a trendy area of Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv when the gunman shot at patrons and then into the street.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, second right, visits the popular bar Saturday Jan. 2, 2016, where a gunman opened fire on Friday, in the coastal Israeli city of Tel Aviv.

An Israeli security official said Monday that there is “no reason” to think that the gunman from a deadly attack in Tel Aviv on Friday is still hiding out in the city as many concerned parents were nervous about sending their children to school.

What authorities called “units specializing in locating and neutralizing perpetrators” were on the scene, Israeli police said Saturday in a statement.

Police swat teams and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Authority) are continuing their massive manhunt and say they searched in the central Gush Dan region last night and have conducted sweeps in abandoned warehouses and construction sites.

The New Year’s Day shooting came amid a wave of Palestinian attacks on Israelis and days after the leader of the Islamic State (IS) group threatened the Jewish state with violence. He is from a village in northern Israel. “All injured taken to Tel Aviv hospitals”, spokesman Micky Rosenfeld wrote on Twitter. It was Melhem’s father who alerted the police after seeing footage of the attack from a security camera.

Rosenfield indicated that roadblocks have been set up in Tel Aviv, and homes and empty buildings around the city have been searched by a number of different agencies as well.

The motive for the shooting spree, which took place on a busy main street, was not immediately clear and it was not known if the shooter was a Palestinian attacker, if it was a gangland shooting or if there was some other motive, police said.

The burials came a day after Israel transferred 23 bodies to the West Bank of Palestinians it says were involved in the current wave of attacks. As another person runs by, the first person slide-steps to keep pace, apparently still pointing the gun. The man described the shooter as “traumatized” after a cousin was killed by police in 2006, and who had served time in Israeli prison after allegedly grabbing an officer’s gun.

“He knew this whole area very well”, said Yoel Galatkin, a store owner in the Ramat Aviv Schuster Center where Milhem worked.

Haim Pinto was closing his jewelry store near the pub when the shooting began.

Other than the two killed victims, two people suffered serious wounds, while three others were moderately wounded.

At least 131 Palestinians have also been killed.