Israel Launches Manhunt for Tel Aviv Gunman

Israeli media showed images of an abandoned ammunition clip at the scene of the shooting that appeared to have come from a Spectre M4 machine gun – a weapon rarely seen in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The police have yet to officially refer to Friday’s shooting as a terrorist attack.

School trips and activities were set to continue as scheduled, the municipality announced. The attack took place Friday afternoon.

However, Huldai expressed his empathy toward anxious parents in light of the existing tensions.

The father, who was questioned by police on Friday, said that he was “exhausted and tired”, adding that “it’s important to me now that they will find and arrest my son because he is still armed, and seeing that he murdered two people, he could kill more people”.

A deadly shooting incident has killed at least two people in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, leaving at least seven others injured, according to a spokesman.

After more than 48 hours of searching, the suspected shooter, Nashat Milhem, is still at large.

Erdan was speaking as security forces continued to search for the fugitive suspect throughout the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. He placed the backpack on a trolley, removed what looked like a submachine gun and began firing on crowds at Tel Aviv’s busy Dizengoff street.

Police partially lifted a gag order on Saturday evening, naming the suspected shooter as Nashaat Melhem, 31, from the Arab village of Arara in northern Israel.

Local police have yet to confirm the motive behind the attack with some fearing the perpetrator has allegiances to the Islamic State group.

Among things police were looking at was whether the shooter was “a murderer who acted alone” in a criminal act or act of terror, authorities said.

The father, police volunteer Muhammad Milhem, recognized his son in video footage of the attack, and called the police.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday night visited the scene of the violence, which had become a makeshift memorial blanketed in candles and flowers.

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. “The Israeli National Police and different units are carrying out searches, both in apartment buildings as well as other construction sites, making sure that those areas specifically are shut down”, he said.

The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Health stated Friday that Israeli soldiers or settlers in 2015 shot and killed 179 Palestinians, including unarmed protesters, bystanders and alleged attackers.