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Gunman Kills 2 at Bar in Tel Aviv; Manhunt Underway

CBN

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JERUSALEM (AP) - A gunman opened fire outside a popular bar in the coastal Israeli city of Tel Aviv on Friday afternoon, killing two people and wounding at least three others before fleeing the scene, police said.
 
The motive for the shooting spree, which took place on a busy main street, was not immediately clear, police said. Media reported the assailant was a member of Israel's Arab minority and called it a nationalistically motivated attack but police refused to comment, saying it was still investigating.
 
Israeli Channel 10 TV showed CCTV footage of the incident, obtained from a health food shop next to the bar. It shows a man with short hair, glasses and a black bag over his shoulder scooping up some nuts, putting them in a plastic bag, then emptying them back. The footage then shows the man walking toward the entrance of the store, placing his backpack on a shopping cart and taking a gun out of it. He then steps outside and starts shooting, after which he runs away.
 
The TV station's defense analyst Alon Ben-David said the gunman was an Israeli Arab and that the attacker's father had seen his son on television and notified authorities. He said the shooter's calm demeanor and the way he was holding and shooting the gun show he was well trained. A Quran, the Muslim holy book, was found later in the attacker's bag, he said.  The Associated Press could not independently confirm those details.
 
Channel 10 also later spoke to a man it identified only as Ahmed who it said was a relative of the shooter. The man described the shooter as "traumatized" after a cousin was killed by police in 2006, and who had served time in Israeli prison after allegedly grabbing an officer's gun.
 

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