ISRAELI Prime Minister Naftali Bennett says security forces will have ‘full freedom’ to act after two Israelis were shot dead in an attack in Tel Aviv.
The two men were killed and 12 others wounded when a Palestinian opened fire on a bar in one of the city’s busiest streets on Thursday night.
The attacker evaded a huge manhunt for hours, before being shot dead in a gunfight in nearby Jaffa.
Israel has been rocked by a wave of attacks which have killed 13 people.
In the latest, Raad Hazem, 28, from Jenin in the occupied West Bank, shot people at the Ilka bar on Dizengoff Street, a main thoroughfare full of restaurants and bars in the heart of Tel Aviv, before escaping.
More than 1,000 members of the Israeli police, army special forces and the Shin Bet intelligence service poured into the city centre to try to find him, as police warned residents to stay indoors.
Hazem was found hiding near a mosque in the port of Jaffa, about four miles (6km) away, and was killed in a shootout with counter-terrorism and security agents.
Speaking in Tel Aviv yesterday morning, Prime Minister Bennett said security forces would have free reign to deal with threats.
‘There are not and will not be limits for this war. We are granting full freedom of action to the army, the Shin Bet (domestic intelligence agency) and all security forces in order to defeat the terror.
‘Every murderer knows we will find them, everyone who helps a terrorist should know that they will pay a heavy price.’
Shin Bet said Hazem had entered Israel illegally and had no known links to militant organisations.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned ‘the killing of Israeli civilians’, warning that ‘the killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians only leads to a further deterioration of the situation’, the official Palestinian Wafa news agency said.
