(Newswire.net — June 10, 2016) —According to the Israeli police, six were wounded and four killed – two men and two women in a terrorist attack at a popular food and shopping complex near the Israeli Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv. The victims are Ido Ben Ari, 42, Ilana Neve ,39, Michael Feige, 58 , and Mila Mishayev, 32.
This has been the deadliest Palestinian attack on Israelis since the start of the latest wave of violence in the fall of 2015.
The attack was carried out by two Palestinian cousins, Khaled Mohamed Makamrah, 22, a final year student studying Electrical Engineering, and Makamrah Ahmad, 21, a worker in the village of Jat, where they live.
They were dressed as Hasidic Jews, said a law enforcement source briefed by Israeli officials. Police officers shot one of the suspects, the other surrendered at the upscale Sarona Market.
Police initially thought that there were three attackers, but later ruled it out after an extensive search and review of security footage, reports The Associated Press.
Information on the motive is not yet available, there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called “a savage crime, murder in the heart of Tel Aviv,” reports the CNN.
The manager of the restaurant where the attack occurred described the scene, saying that people were sitting and having coffee, a family was celebrating a birthday. The two attackers were also seated in the restaurant, they behaved like all the other guests, they ordered something to eat, and then they suddenly got up and started shooting. They did not shout anything, just took out their weapons and started shooting, explained the manager of the restaurant.
Amir Ohana, a member of the Israeli Parliament who was at Sarona Market, told CNN that people were enjoying a serene night when the violence erupted. After the shooting, chairs were upturned, and there was shattered glass and blood everywhere.
Security cameras from a cafe near the shooting scene recorded the chaos as panicked customers knocked over chairs and tables trying to escape. People crawled across the floor, some of them carrying children in their arms.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, immediately went to the Ministry of Defense to assess the situation with the defense minister and the heads of the security services.
He later visited the scene of the attack and described the event as “murder in cold blood.”
Netanyahu told the reporters that he and the defense ministers held a series of consultations on offensive and defensive measures which will be taken against the serious phenomenon of shootings.
“They certainly challenge us, but we will provide an answer,” Netanyahu said, reports Reuters.
Due of the shooting, Israel has suspended 83,000 Palestinian permits to enter the country during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. All the special permits which allow family members from Judea and Samaria to visit Israel, have been frozen, reports the department in charge of civil affairs in the West Bank (CogAT).
The US State Department strongly condemned the shooting in Tel Aviv and stressed that such cowardly attacks on innocent civilians can never be justified.
Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, sent his condolences to the families of the victims. He also stated his shock that Hamas leaders chose to welcome the attack. Ban Ki-moon called on the Palestinian leadership to take responsibility and to stand firm against violence and incitement.