Gunman kills 2, hurts 3 outside bar in Tel Aviv

JERUSALEM — A gunman opened fire outside a popular bar in the coastal city of Tel Aviv on Friday afternoon, killing two people and wounding three others before fleeing, police said.

The motive for the shooting, which took place on a main street, was not immediately clear, police said. Media reported the assailant was a member of Israel’s Arab minority and called it a nationalistically motivated attack, but police refused to comment, saying the crime was still under investigation.

Israeli Channel 10 TV showed CCTV footage of the incident, obtained from a health food shop next to the bar. It shows a man with short hair, glasses and a black bag over his shoulder scooping up some nuts, putting them in a plastic bag, then emptying them back. The footage then shows the man walking toward the entrance of the store, placing his backpack on a shopping cart and taking a gun out of it. He then steps outside and starts shooting, after which he runs away.

Alon Ben-David, the TV station’s defense analyst, said the gunman was an Israeli Arab and that the attacker’s father had seen his son on television and notified authorities. He said the shooter’s calm demeanor and the way he was holding and shooting the gun show he was trained. A Quran, the Muslim holy book, was found later in the attacker’s bag, he said.

The attack comes amid more than three months of almost daily Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. On the Israeli side, 23 people have died. At least 131 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire.