Israeli patrolman killed in Tel Aviv shooting, Palestinian gunman also killed
By Michael Schwartz, Abeer Salman, Amir Tal, Kareem El Damanhoury and Hamdi Alkhshali, CNN
(CNN) — An Israeli patrolman was shot and killed in Tel Aviv on Saturday night by a Palestinian gunman who was also shot and killed, Israeli authorities said.
Israel Police Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai said two Tel Aviv municipal patrol bikers noticed the suspect and called on him to stop, prompting him to pull out a pistol and shoot one of them.
The second patrolman pulled out his own gun, chased the attacker and shot him.
Both the wounded officer and the gunman were taken to Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center – Ichilov – which first announced the gunman was dead and later confirmed the officer’s death.
The hospital named the officer as Chen Amir, 42, a married father of three.
Amir was unconscious, with no pulse or breathing, when emergency medical technicians arrived at the scene of the shooting, the Magen David Adom (MDA) rescue service said.
He was transported to the hospital in a mobile intensive care unit, MDA said.
Commissioner Shabtai and the Israel Police spokesperson’s unit both said the suspect was 27 years old. They have not yet named him in public.
The US State Department qualified the incident as “a terror attack” – along with a separate attack by an Israeli settler against a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank, which also took place Saturday.
In a statement released on Twitter, now known as X, the State Department said:
“We strongly condemn today’s terrorist attack in Tel Aviv that killed one and wounded two others – as well as other recent terrorist attacks against Israelis. We express our deepest condolences to the victims’ families and call for an end to these acts of violence and incitement to violence,” the statement read.
Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad both praised the attack, stating that “it is a normal response to settler attacks and a defense of the holy sites.”
Neither group has explicitly claimed responsibility.
The-CNN-Wire
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