Israel’s security cabinet met in Tel Aviv on Thursday to decide on further responses to the attack, while the military said it was deploying two additional army battalions to the West Bank.
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Surveillance video shows the gunmen were disguised as businessmen wearing coats and ties.
“We ran like lighting with the baby and the stroller”, she said. Terrified patrons took cover under tables and behind counters while others ran outside in panic.
Police said the two gunmen in their 20s were members of the same family from Yatta. Israel has been widely condemned for using this tactic as a deterrent to Palestinian resistance.
“Real weapons” are now hard to find and expensive in the West Bank due to raids carried out by Israel as well as those undertaken by forces of the Palestinian government, which rules about a third of the territory.
Relatives and friends mourn during the funeral of Ido Ben Ari, one of four Israelis who was killed in an Palestinian shooting attack in Tel Aviv, at a cemetery in Yavne, Israel on Thursday. Hamas stopped short of claiming responsibility for the attack.
Islamic Jihad, another militant group, called the shooting a “natural response” to Israel’s “brutal actions” against Palestinians.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said there was no justification for terrorism, “nor for the glorification of those who commit such heinous acts”.
On Wednesday night, Mark Toner, spokesman for the US State Department, made a statement condemning the attack.
Israelis light candles near the site of a Palestinian shooting attack in Tel Aviv, June 9, 2016.
An Israeli intelligence official says it’s now the weapon of choice among Palestinian attackers. But that is unlikely to appease Israel, which accuses his government of inciting a nine-month wave of terror.
According to Palestinian reports, the IDF surrounded the town of Yatta, the hometown of the assailants, and has declared the area a closed military zone. Israeli encroachments on the mosque were the catalyst for months of stabbings, car-rammings and other attacks by West Bank residents that have left more than 200 Palestinians and almost 30 Israelis dead. Some Palestinians dubbed it the “Intifada [Uprising] of the Knives”.
The couple were dining at the restaurant Max Brenner at the time of the attack. Others were killed in clashes with security forces or by Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip.
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“Unfortunately, in Israel, they are not immune to terrorist attacks and these things tend to happen seemingly out of the blue and occasionally but usually Tel Aviv is somewhat immune to it, these things tend to happen more in Jerusalem or where there are settlements in the West Bank”, said Sundgaard.
