Police bolster security in Tel Aviv, week after shooting attack

Israeli police beefed up security in Tel Aviv on Friday by setting up checkpoints after week-long searches for an Arab shooter who killed three people in the city center.

The gunman, Nashat Melhem, a 31-year-old Israeli citizen, is still on the loose.

Police erected checkpoints in the northern neighborhoods of Tel Aviv, where Melhem was last seen. Car drivers were stopped and asked to show their IDs, and armed policemen were patrolling Dizengoff Street, where the attack took place.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri confirmed that large forces were deployed in Tel Aviv city and its vicinity "following a security assessment."

Police were also deployed in Wadi Ara, a region of Arab towns, including the town of Arara, in which Melhem has benn living until recently.

Melhem's shooting spree took place on Dizengoff street, an area of pubs and restaurants, at a busy noon hour last Friday.

He opened fire using a submachine gun, killing two men and wounding eight others. He had escaped the scene before the police arrived.

On Wednesday, police said he is also suspected of killing an Arab-Israeli taxi driver. Melhem apparently killed the driver as the taxi approached a police barricade, less than an hour after the attack at the pub took place.

The incident came amidst a three-month-long wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence, which has claimed the lives of at least 139 Palestinians and 23 Israelis. Endit