Israel clamps down after Tel Aviv deadly shooting

TEL AVIV — Israel clamped down on Palestinian movements and planned to deploy more troops Thursday after Palestinian gunmen reportedly shot dead four people at a popular Tel Aviv nightspot.

Surveillance video seemingly from the moment of the attack that spread online showed two assailants dressed in black suits and ties calmly walking into a cafe before pulling out guns and opening fire.

Most patrons fled in panic, though some fought back at the cafe at Sarona Market.

Five people were wounded in addition to the four killed.

The cafe remained open Thursday and was about half full in the afternoon.

Israel’s government said it was revoking entry permits for more than 80,000 Palestinians during the holy month of Ramadan in a move likely to further stoke tensions.

It was also sending two additional battalions — hundreds more troops — into the occupied West Bank.

Newly installed Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman ordered that the bodies of Palestinians killed while carrying out attacks no longer be returned to their families for burial, a spokesperson said.

The policy is backed by Israeli hawks as a deterrent measure.

Enacting it was the hardliner’s first major decision related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since he took office on May 30. 

Wednesday night’s victims were all Israelis.

One of their attackers was arrested, while the other was under guard in hospital after being wounded by gunfire.

They were identified as Khaled Mohammad Makhamrah, 22, and his cousin Mohammad Ahmad Makhamrah, 21, both from Hebron in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the shooting scene after what he called the “cold-blooded terrorist murder”.

At a meeting of Israel’s security Cabinet, Lieberman reportedly pushed for even faster punitive demolitions of Palestinian attackers’ homes.

It was not yet clear if the attackers were acting alone or as part of a larger plot.

A spokesperson for Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip and which is also present in the West Bank, called the attack a “heroic operation”.

One of Israel’s first responses was to revoke tens of thousands of Palestinian entry permits for Ramadan.

COGAT, the defence ministry unit which manages civilian affairs in the West Bank, said that 83,000 Palestinians would be affected.

The measures also included revoking work permits for 204 of the attackers’ clan.

Israel’s army locked down the Palestinian town of Yatta, where the assailants were from, with soldiers patrolling and stopping cars as they entered and exited.

Stalled peace efforts 

The UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Nickolay Mladenov, said “all must reject violence and say no to terror”.

“I am also shocked to see Hamas welcome the terror attack,” he said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ office said it rejected all violence against civilians.

Confrontations since October have killed at least 207 Palestinians, 32 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese.

Many analysts say Palestinian frustration with Israeli occupation and settlement-building in the West Bank, the complete lack of progress in peace efforts and their own fractured leadership have fed the unrest.

Israel says incitement by Palestinian leaders and media is a leading cause of the violence.

Last week in Paris, representatives from 28 countries, the Arab League, the European Union and the United Nations met to discuss ways of restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.

Negotiations have been at a complete standstill since a US-led initiative collapsed in April 2014.