Tel Aviv bar shooting leaves at least 2 dead, police hunt for gunman

A gunman opened fire at a popular bar in the central Israeli city of Tel Aviv this afternoon, killing two and wounding at least three others before fleeing, police said.

NatiShakked, owner of theSimtabar onDizengoffStreet,said the assailant had waited on abench outside before taking a machine-gun out of a bag and"shooting in every direction."

The motive for the New Year's Day attack on a busy main street was not immediately clear, and it was not known if it was a gangland shooting.

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Police spokeswomanLubaSamrisaid the two people who died were among thefive wounded.

She said a massive manhunt was underway for the gunman. Large police forces were deployed at the scene.

Israeli Channel 10 TV airedCCTV footageobtained from a shop near the bar thatshows theman purported to be the shooter.

The man, withshort hair,glasses and a black bag over his shoulder,scoopsup some cashewnuts, putsthem in a plastic bag andthen emptiesthem back.The footage then shows the man walking toward the entrance of thestore, placing his backpack on a shopping cart, and taking a gun out ofit. He steps outside and starts shooting, then runsaway.

Channel 10 and other Israeli media later Friday claimed theattacker's identity was known to authorities.

The station's defenceanalyst,AlonBen-David, said the gunman was an Israeli Arab, and thatthe attacker's father had seen his son on TV and notifiedauthorities.

Ben-David said the gunman's calm demeanour, and the way he washolding and shooting the gun show he was well trained.

According toBen-David, aQur'an, the Muslim holy book, was found later in theattacker's bag.Channel 10 later spoke to a man it identified only as Ahmed whoit said was a relative of the shooter. The man described the shooteras "traumatized" after a cousin was killed by police in 2006, andwho had served time in Israeli prison after allegedly grabbing anofficer's gun.

The Associated Press, however, could not independently confirm thosedetails.

Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai visited the wounded in hospital, and later said he spoke with those who were able to talk.

He said that inside the bar, "friends were celebrating a birthday and a man opened fire at them from the outside."

Huldai said "lessons will be learned" to improve security.

Israel has seen a wave of Palestinian street attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers sinceOctober, fuelled in part byanger over stepped-up Jewishvisits to Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque complex, also sacred toJews, as well as long-stalled peace talks.

On the Israeli side, 21 people have died, mostly instabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks.

At least 131 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, 90 of them identified by Israel as assailants. The rest died in clashes with security forces.

Channel 10 reported that an assault rifle was used in Friday's attack.