Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said security forces will have "full freedom" to act after a Palestinian gunman killed three people in Tel Aviv. The attacker opened fire at a bar on Dizengoff Street on Thursday night, killing two, with a third victim dying on Friday.
The gunman, identified as Raad Hazem, 28, from Jenin in the occupied West Bank, evaded a massive manhunt for hours before being shot dead in a gunfight in the nearby port of Jaffa. More than 1,000 police, army special forces and Shin Bet intelligence agents were deployed to find him.
Speaking in Tel Aviv on Friday, Mr Bennett said: "There are not and will not be limits for this war. We are granting full freedom of action to the army, the Shin Bet and all security forces in order to defeat the terror." Shin Bet said Hazem had entered Israel illegally and had no known links to militant groups.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the killing of Israeli civilians, warning that further violence would only worsen the situation. However, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad praised the attack. The dead were named as childhood friends Eytam Magini and Tomer Morad, both 27, and a 35-year-old father-of-three who died of his wounds.
The attack is part of a wave of violence that has killed 14 people in Israel in recent weeks, including a shooting in an ultra-Orthodox suburb of Tel Aviv and two attacks by Israeli Arabs. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the attack, saying Washington stood with Israel "resolutely in the face of senseless terrorism and violence".
