Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman urges the Tel Aviv gunman Nashat Milhem’s body be returned to his family.
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Hakim Younis told Israeli Channel 10 TV that he witnessed some of the incident from his home. Milhem shot a police dog that had entered a building as part of the search, he added, and that exposed his location, prompting troops to close in.
Other CCTV shows the moment the attacker aimed at people sitting in the Simta bar. Before the attack, he turned off his cellphone and left it between residential buildings in Tel Aviv, where it was found by a schoolgirl after the shootings, according to reports.
During questioning he is believed to have said he wanted revenge for the death of a cousin allegedly killed by police in 2006.
“The police have worked day and night to find the shooter and I’m very happy that we can see fruit from their efforts”, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said in a statement. Since October, about 140 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces or armed civilians “in the act”.
He was accused of killing two people in a Tel Aviv pub and a taxi driver whose vehicle he used to escape.
Melhem was arrested in 2007 for attacking an Israeli soldier and served five years in jail.
Israeli Arabs, who make up a fifth of the country’s 8.4million people, have long complained of unfair treatment in areas such as housing and employment opportunities.
Unrest has since spread throughout the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Palestinian communities in Israel.
“The institutions should be there to protect both Arabs and Jews”, he said, while stressing that one of the men killed in the New Year attack was a Palestinian citizen of Israel. The rest died in clashes with security forces. The figures do not include Milhem’s victims.
“But someone must have told the PA that having Melhem deemed a “martyr” might not be such a wise move, due to the way it would be perceived in Israel and overseas, so it suddenly disappeared”, he said.
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Days after the Tel Aviv attack, Netanyahu prompted the criticism of rights groups and Palestinian legislators in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, when he called for an increased police presence in Palestinian towns and villages in Israel.
