Israeli police hunt gunman of Paris-style attack

Israeli security forces pressed Saturday a manhunt for the gunman who killed two people and wounded seven others at a Tel Aviv pub, as the motive for the attack remained unclear. The same day, funerals of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces after a spate of knife attacks, took place in the West Bank.

An Israeli forensic policeman works at the scene of a shooting incident in Tel Aviv, Israel January 1, 2016. REUTERS/Baz Ratner

In central Tel Aviv, a suspect opened fire on a busy pub on New Year's Day, killing two people, amid a wave of attacks on Israelis.

A massive police hunt was launched to find the shooter, believed to be an Arab from northern Israel.

Israeli counter terrorism, under cover and special patrol units were immediately mobilized to scour the area, with police helicopters heard overhead.

"Our aim is to understand whether the background to the incident was a terrorist attack or whether it was a criminal related incident," Tel Aviv police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told RFI.

CCTV footage from a nearby health food store showed a man in glasses with a backpack pretending to shop before going to the exit. He placed the backpack on a trolley, removed what looked like a submachine gun and began firing on crowds at Tel Aviv's busy Dizengoff street.

Medics took nine people to hospitals in Tel Aviv, with police saying two of them had died, both Israelis.

The attack on the busy terrace comes six weeks after coordinated jihadist attacks in Paris at bars, a concert hall and the Stade de France stadium, and has sparked comparisons between events in Tel Aviv and the French capital.

Yet, in Israel, where stabbings, car-rammings and gunfire have become almost daily, the cause remains the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

On Saturday, several funerals of Palestinians, who allegedly carried out attacks on Israelis, took place in Hebron's West Bank.

The day before, Palestinians received 23 bodies of alleged assailants from the West Bank after they were released by Israel. In total, 138 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the start of the latest violence, according to the AFP.