Israeli PM gives security ‘full freedom’ to act after attack

TEL AVIV

Israel’s premier gave security agencies “full freedom” of operation to curb surging violence after the latest deadly attack saw a Palestinian gunman kill two men in a popular nightlife area.

“There are not and will not be limits for this war,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said, speaking hours after the attack in Tel Aviv on April 8.

“We are granting full freedom of action to the army, the Shin Bet (the domestic security agency), and all security forces in order to defeat the terror,” he added, in a public address in the Israeli coastal city.

The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and the Islamic Jihad group praised the attack but have stopped short of claiming responsibility.

Earlier April 8, Israeli police said they had shot dead a Palestinian gunman who killed two Israeli men and wounded over a dozen others when he opened fire on a street of busy bars and restaurants crowded on an April 7 evening.

The attacker had shot at revellers, triggering chaos as people fled in panic, and sparking an overnight manhunt that saw some 1,000 heavily armed police and soldiers deployed.

The two Israeli men killed were named Tomer Morad and Eytam Magini, both 27 and childhood friends from the city of Kfar Saba, the mayor Rafi Saar said, who called them “our best sons.” Special forces confronted the attacker in the old city of Jaffa, the historic Arab district of Tel Aviv, where on April 8 morning, street cleaners hosed blood off the ground.

Police commissioner Yaakov Shabtai said officers had “succeeded this morning... in eliminating the terrorist by exchange of fire.”

Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas condemned the attack.

The Palestinian official news agency Wafa reported Abbas said: “the killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians only leads to a further deterioration of the situation.”