Head of Joint List Condemns Friday Killings in Central Tel Aviv

A gunman sprayed bullets from an automatic weapon near a pub in Tel Aviv, on Friday January 1, killing two people and injuring at least seven others before fleeing.

Security footage showing the suspected gunman in a grocery on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv, seconds before he stepped outside and opened fire with an automatic weapon, killing two people, on January 1, 2016.

Security footage showing the suspected gunman in a grocery on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv, seconds before he stepped outside and opened fire with an automatic weapon, killing two people, on January 1, 2016. (Screen capture)

More than 15 rounds were fired in a number of different directions on a sidewalk outside the Simta Pub on Dizengoff Street. Two surveillance videos aired by Israeli news media appear to show the attacker before and during the 2:40 p.m. shooting. Police attributed no motive to the attack and refused to confirm media reports which identified the shooter as an Arab citizen in his late twenties from Wadi Ara in northern Israel, who had recently been jailed for trying to snatch a soldier’s weapon.

MK Ayman Odeh (Hadash), who heads the Joint List, said that “while not all the details of the incident are clear yet,” he “vigorously and unequivocally” condemns any attack on innocent individuals. “Today’s pictures are heartbreaking,” Odeh said. “The harming of civilians must be condemned in the clearest, most firm fashion.”

One of the killed has been identified as Alon Bakal, a law and business student who was a manager at the Simta Pub, while police have named the second victim as Shimon Ruimi from southern Israel.