Mr Melhem – who volunteers with the local police – explained that he drove to the police station as soon as he recognised his son’s face on the CCTV footage of the attack.
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The fact that Milhem escaped, rather than embracing martyrdom as many terrorists do, was a surprise to security experts, who note that terrorists often seek to inflict as much damage as possible until they are stopped by force. “We all know there is wild incitement by radical Islam in the Arab sector”, he claimed.
Increasingly frequent attacks by Palestinians have killed 21 Israelis in recent months, in stabbings, shootings or vehicular assaults.
A manhunt is under way in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv after a gunman killed two people outside a popular bar.
Since the shooting, Tel Aviv has been cloaked in a gloomy silence.
“Police units searching Tel Aviv area for suspect who carried out shooting”.
“I hear the criticism and I am not prepared to take it”, Netanyahu said at the opening of his Likud faction meeting.
According to Hebrew media reports based on police sources late Sunday, Milhem was known to have fled the scene of the shooting on Dizengoff Street on foot, and hailed a cab on nearby Ibn Gabirol Street.
More than 130 Palestinians have died in Israeli defensive measures and counterattacks in the same period.
In a recording released a week ago and attributed to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the secretive leader of the IS jihadist group pledged to attack Israel.
Relatives of Nashat Milhem, an Israeli Arab from the village of Arara in northern Israel, reportedly recognized him from security footage recorded at the scene of Friday’s attack and notified authorities. An uncle says that Melhem has a diagnosed psychological disorder, but he is unsure if Melhem is now taking prescribed medication to treat it. The uncle also says that Melhem previously spent five years in prison after he attempted to steal a weapon from an Israeli soldier.
“Among Muslim citizens of Israel there are many who speak out against violence and aspire to full law enforcement in their communities”, Netanyahu said at the site. “Don’t discriminate, don’t divide and don’t sow hatred and fear”, she said.
Alon Bakal, 26, manager of the Simta restaurant and bar on Dizengoff St. where the attack took place.
“This is very painful for us, people go out and want to have a good time, then this happens, its not right”, said Victor Dahan, who traveled to the place of the shooting from the city of Rehovot.
“Something definitely changed in the Tel Aviv bubble”, said Arik Rudnitszky of Tel Aviv University’s Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation.
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Israel’s Channel 2 also noted that Milhem’s cousin was shot and killed by a police officer in 2006. Twenty Israelis were killed from October to mid-November alone, with others injured, the government said.
