Security Tight at Tel Aviv School after Attack

Tel-Aviv Cafe shooting on Jan 1, 2016Two people were killed and at least seven wounded Friday when a gunman opened fire on a pub and nearby cafe in central Tel Aviv, but the motive was not immediately clear.

Israeli security forces and onlookers stand at the site an attack by an unidentified gunman, who ope … “I don’t know from where this disaster came upon us”.

For over three months, almost-daily Palestinian terror attacks have targeted Israeli civilians and security forces with knives, shootings, and vehicle rammings.

Eye witnesses to the carnage on Friday described a calm assailant who seemed to have had an escape plan in place.

Security around schools in Tel Aviv and other crowded areas in the city were set to be bolstered Sunday in the wake of Friday’s fatal shooting on Dizengoff Street.

The Foreign Office updated their travel warning for Tel Aviv, urging visitors to remain “vigilant”. The shooter fled the scene after the attack.

“If there is a failure, the failure is of the state by not enforcing the law in Arab villages and cities, and the Arabs are the first ones to implore us to enforce the law fully”, he added. Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai visited the wounded in hospital and later said he spoke with those who were able to talk. “I’m sorry. I came to the police and helped the security services”, the father said in a statement to the press from his home in Wadi Ara.

Two weeks ago, two cousins accused of being Islamic State operatives were arrested in the Nazareth area on suspicion of plotting attacks in northern Israel.

Israeli media reported that the gun was stolen from his father, a volunteer with the Israeli police, who identified Milhem as the gunman after seeing the health food store footage on television.

Nashat Milhem had previously served five years in prison for trying to seize the gun of an Israeli soldier. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that multiple organizations were working together to locate the suspect responsible for the Tel Aviv shooting.

“I will not accept two states within Israel”, he said, decrying “enclaves without law enforcement, with Islamist propaganda, with plenty of weapons often fired during wedding celebrations”. “There is no definitive indication that this was a nationalist act”, he said. She was then shot and killed.

The two dead were identified as Alon Bakal, 26, manager of the bar, and 30-year-old Shimon Ruimi from the southern Israeli city of Ofakim. “Whoever wants to be an Israeli has to be one all the way, in rights and duties, and the first duty is to obey the country’s law”, he stressed.

“This is an extreme, complex and unique event in which an armed individual embarked on an indiscriminate killing spree in the heart of a busy street”, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said, alluding to the fact that the case may differ from recent attacks by Palestinian militants against Israelis.