The attacker from the Jenin area was a member of Islamic Jihad.

By JNS

An Israeli man was killed on Saturday evening in a Palestinian shooting attack in the heart of Tel Aviv.

Two municipal patrol officers attempted to question the terrorist, who was behaving suspiciously, at the corner of Montefiore and Allenby streets. He ignored their overtures, drew a handgun from his bag and opened fire on them as they got off their motorcycles.

The victim, named as Chen Amir, 42, was a municipal security guard who had engaged the terrorist. The second officer then chased after the terrorist and shot and killed him.

Amir was evacuated to the nearby Ichilov Hospital, where he died. He is survived by his wife and three daughters.

Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai (center) at the scene of the terrorist attack in Tel Aviv, Aug. 5, 2023. Photo by Gidon Markovich\TPS.

Shabtai identified the attacker as a Palestinian from Rummanah in the Jenin area in northern Samaria who was in possession of a “martyrdom” letter. The commissioner said the guards prevented a large terrorist attack.

Security services were investigating whether the Palestinian assailant had accomplices and how he entered Israel proper.

According to the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), the terrorist, Kamel Abu Bakr, 22, was a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad who had been hiding in the Jenin refugee camp for the last six months.

He did not have an entry permit into Israel proper due to this affiliation.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commended the Israeli officers “for their alertness and for engaging, thereby thwarting a much more serious attack.

“Our security forces will settle accounts with everyone who seeks to attack us,” added Netanyahu.

Last month, a Palestinian terrorist drove his car into pedestrians at a bus stop on Pinchas Rosen Street in Tel Aviv’s northeastern Ramat Hahayal neighborhood.

He then got out of the vehicle and stabbed additional victims with a sharp object. He wounded seven victims in total.

An armed civilian killed the terrorist.

Days earlier, a 14-year-old Palestinian stabbed an Israeli man in the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak. The victim was evacuated in moderate condition to Maayanei Hayeshua Medical Center in the city, which is located east of Tel Aviv.

The Palestinian terrorist was arrested at the scene.

On March 20, Or Eshkar, 32, died from a bullet wound sustained 11 days earlier during a terror attack in Tel Aviv.

Eshkar was mortally wounded when a Hamas member from Ni’lin in Samaria opened fire outside a cafe on the corner of Dizengoff and Ben-Gurion streets in the city center.

The terrorist also shot Rotem Mansano, 34, and Michael Osdon, 36.

The three Israeli friends were on their way to a wedding when they were attacked. The terrorist fled the scene after the shooting, while firing at other people, before being killed in a shootout with police officers.

Since the beginning of 2023, Palestinian terrorists have killed 26 Israelis.