Details Emerge About Identity of Tel Aviv Shooter; 29-Year-Old Arab-Israeli Citizen From Village Near Haifa
by Algemeiner Staff
Details continued to emerge in Israeli media reports late on Friday about the shooter who targeted a bar in Tel Aviv earlier in the day.
According to the reports, citing Israeli defense officials, the attacker is a 29-year-old Arab Israeli citizen from a village located near Haifa in the Wadi Ara area. He reportedly was motivated to carry out the attack by radical Islamist incitement.
Channel 10 said the shooter’s father recognized his son’s face on CCTV footage from moments before he carried out the attack that left two Israelis dead and eight wounded. After seeing a TV broadcast 0f the images, the father notified authorities.
The attacker’s Facebook page was free of incitement to violence against Israel, Channel 10 reported. According to Channel 2, the killer was not know to belong to radical terrorist organizations.
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Some, however, still voiced uncertainly about what motivated the shooter. Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told Channel 2 that contrary to the reports, defense officials had yet to confirm whether the attack was criminal or motivated by terrorism.
Erdan and other analysts noted that the shooting differed from other recent terrorist attacks — Israel has been facing a wave of nationalistically motivated Palestinian attacks against Israelis — especially because the attacker fled rather than continuing to kill until he was subdued by security forces.