Tel Aviv terror shooting -3 wounded, including 1 critically

Three people were shot and wounded in a terrorist shooting near a cafe in central Tel Aviv on Thursday night, police and medics said.

Police said the Palestinian attacker opened fire at people outside the cafe on the corner of Dizengoff Street and Ben Gurion Street, an area typically bustling on Thursday night. He then fled the scene while shooting at other people in the area, before being shot dead in a shootout with police officers a short time later.

One victim was listed in critical but stable condition after undergoing surgery and was still fighting for his life, said doctors at Ichilov Medical Center, where the injured were taken. The other two were listed in serious and moderate condition, the Magen David Adom ambulance service said.

The hospital said the critically wounded victim was stabilized and was to undergo surgery along with the other man who was seriously hurt. Another two victims were brought to the hospital to be treated for anxiety.

Police said they were treating the shooting as a terror attack. An eyewitness to the attack told Ynet: “I saw a terrorist and I hid. I saw policemen running toward the corner of the building. A shootout started between them. He came [out from behind the building] and they neutralized him,” the eyewitness said.

The shooter was later identified as 23-year-old Mutaz Salah al-Khawaja, a Palestinian from the West Bank town of Ni’lin, who had been twice jailed in Israel. He was shot dead by four armed people, including two police officers who were at the scene, one of whom was off duty, law enforcement officials said. The other two included a civilian and a reserve IDF officer.

The Hamas terror group said al-Khawaja was a member of its armed wing. He did not have an entry permit to Israel when he carried out the attack. In a statement, Hamas said the attack came as a “natural response” to recent deadly Israeli military raids in the West Bank, but did not explicitly take responsibility for the shooting.

Images from surveillance camera video showed al-Khawaja during the shooting.

Israel Police chief Kobi Shabtai said that the fast reaction of the armed individuals prevented a much worse situation. “We had a lot of luck here,” said Shabtai, “the fast reaction of the cops and citizens on the site prevented the murder of hundreds of people.” He said police know how the terrorist entered the country illegally but declined to provide those details at this time.

The attack served to ratchet up already high tensions between Israel and Palestinians, with the IDF conducting near-nightly raids in the West Bank amid a series of deadly Palestinian terror attacks. Those tensions have ramped up even further in recent weeks amid a cycle of Israeli raids and Palestinian revenge attacks, as well as an uptick in settler violence.

Israeli forces entered the West Bank town of Ni’lin, near Ramallah, shortly after midnight and were at the home of al-Khawaja, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement. The raid came after Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered the defense establishment to “immediately” begin work to demolish the terrorist’s home, though the troops were likely only permitted to carry out surveying work.

SOURCE: THE TIMES OF ISREAL