Terrorism2 killed, 8 injured in terrorist attack in Tel Aviv

Three hours ago a gunman shot and killed two people and injured eight – four of them seriously – at the center of Tel Aviv. Hundreds of police officers, using drones and sniffing dogs, have been searching for the gunman.

The police have released videos from security cameras showing the gunman calmly buying an unidentified item at a store, then taking his backpack off his shoulder, putting it on a display table near the store’s door and pulling an automatic weapon out of it, then stepping outside the store. The gunman, wearing a short winter coat and sunglasses, then begins to shoot people on the sidewalk before running away.

Weapon experts say that the automatic rifle the gunman was using was an older type of weapon popular among Palestinians in the West Bank, but also among Israeli Bedouins and criminal gangs.

Half an hour or so after the shooting, an abandoned taxi was found on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, with blood on the front seat and dashboard. It is not yet known whether there is a connection between the shooting and the abandoned taxi.

The immediate suspicion among Israeli security experts is that the shooting is related to the recent surge in attacks by Palestinians on Israeli citizens. Most of these attacks were perpetrated by knife-wielding youths, so the use of an automatic weapon at the center of Tel Aviv should be regarded as an escalation of the campaign.

If it was a terrorist attack, it represents an escalation in yet another way: The attacks by knife-wielding youths are typically spontaneous, without planning or forethoughts. All the attackers so far have been captured or killed at the scene immediately after the attack.

The attack in Tel Aviv involved an automatic weapon, and the shooter managed to escape. It is not yet known whether he had assistance from one or more people waiting for him in a car to whisk him away, or perhaps he commandeered a taxi to drive him away, then killed the driver and disappeared.

Either way, it appears that today’s attack involved more planning and preparations than previous attacks.

An ongoing war among Israeli crime gangs has also involved the killing of rivals, but the method preferred by these gangs typically involves booby-trapping a car with explosives rather than shooting – and, in any event, crime-related shooting typically targets a specific individual.