Police said the assailants killed four people in the 9:30 p.m. (1830 GMT) assault and that six were wounded. The report went on to report that the “two shooters were shot and disarmed by police” without any mention that it was a terror attack.
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The civil administration, Israel’s military authority responsible for implementing government policy in the West Bank and Gaza, then said it was freezing 83,000 permits for Palestinians to enter Israel.
Sarona Market opened a year ago and includes bars, restaurants and food counters. It is located about 1,000 feet from Israel’s military headquarters and its Defense Ministry. An official of COGAT, the body responsible for coordinating the Israeli activities in the Palestinian Territories, confirms that “in particular the permits allocated to friends and family have been suspended [.]'”.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the scene of what he called the “cold-blooded terrorist murder” after returning from a trip to Moscow and conferred with senior colleagues, including newly installed hardline defence minister Avigdor Lieberman.
Since then Palestinians have killed 31 Israelis and two visiting U.S. citizens.
“I was a meter (yard) away from the terrorist, celebrating my son’s birthday and we started running. the place was full”, Meital Sasi, an eyewitness, told Channel 10 television.
In a similar attack in Tel Aviv five months ago, an Israeli Arab killed two people on a main shopping street and the driver of a taxi he used to flee the scene.
Amir Ohana, a member of the Israeli Parliament who was at Sarona market, told CNN that people were enjoying a serene night when violence erupted. One of the suspected attackers was wounded when he was detained.
Israel security personnel search the area following a shooting attack that took place in the center of Tel Aviv, Israel, June 8, 2016.
According to Israel’s security agency, they are both Palestinians from the village of Yatta in the southern West Bank, near the city of Hebron.
The Jerusalem Post reported in April that Tel Aviv police wanted to close the market because of “security flaws and safety shortcomings that present a risk to the public’s safety”.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Tonermcondemned the “horrific terrorist attack” and said “cowardly attacks against innocent civilians can never be justified”.
Fisher said he was unable to get in touch with her after he heard the news about the attack; he later learned her phone ran out of battery power.
In a striking contrast to the Palestinian reaction, the official Saudi media strongly denounced the Tel Aviv terror attack.
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Two people were killed January 1 when a gunman sprayed bullets from an automatic weapon near a pub in Tel Aviv.
