26-year-old Alon Bakal. Photo: Facebook.

Twenty-six-year-old Alon Bakal was busy managing a bustling pub with plenty of outdoor seating when a terrorist on Friday opened fire on the casual street scene, killing two.

Bakal, along with 30-year-old Shimon Ruimi, was one of the victims of the shooter, who remained at large on Friday evening.

His father told Israeli news website Walla that he was informed by Alon’s girlfriend via cell phone that the pub where his son worked was targeted by an attacker.

“Alon’s girlfriend called to say there was a terrorist attack at Alon’s pub,” said David Bakal, Alon’s father. “We got to the hospital and I fainted right here. I felt, I saw my boy’s face.”

“We’re losing our good sons,” he continued, speaking to reporters. “He studied law and business management, he was supposed to start his legal internship … He was a flourishing, happy child. Everywhere he went he brought the light, he made everybody laugh, there was no other boy like him. Why am I telling you this? Everybody says ‘my boy this,’ but so you have no doubt, he was a special boy. He was for us one of a kind. Yesterday he sent me a message: ‘I’m having fun, I love being alive.'”

Five of the eight people wounded in the shooting were still being treated in the hospital, Israel’s army radio, Galatz, reported. Two of the critically wounded victims were released from surgery at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv Friday evening, and their situations had stabilized.

Large police squads continue to comb through Tel Aviv for the shooter hours after the attack. The authorities decided to leave reinforced police and Shin Bet domestic security officers in the city in the interim.

According to Israeli media 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.