Shooting in Tel Aviv: 42-year-old father dies of his wounds; terrorist killed

The victim, a guard, prevented a mass shooting. Anti-government protesters will go on with their demonstration against judicial reform Saturday evening, despite the attack. 

By JNS and World Israel News Staff

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

Chen Amir, 42, was one of two municipal patrol officers who attempted to question the terrorist, who was behaving suspiciously. The assailant then drew a handgun from his bag and opened fire on them as they got off their motorcycles.

The wounded officer was evacuated to the nearby Ichilov Hospital, where he underwent surgery. He died later of his wounds.

The second officer chased after the terrorist and shot and killed him.

Israeli Police Commissioner Kobi 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 terrorist 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.

“I commend the personnel of the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality security patrol for their alertness and for engaging, thereby thwarting a much more serious attack,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated.

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

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also commended the officers for the brave actions. “We’ll bring the terrorists and their emissaries to justice,” he said.

United Hatzalah volunteer EMT David Bader said that “following the incident, members of the psycho-trauma and crisis response unit were dispatched to treat numerous eyewitnesses, including some of the first responders themselves, and provided them with psychological and emotional stabilization.”

Amir was married with three daughters. His family will donate his organs to save other lives.

The weekly Saturday night demonstration against the judicial overhaul was not cancelled, organizers said, adding that they would be carried out in coordination with police; protesters will not block roads, they said, in order not to block security.

Last month, a Palestinian terrorist drove his car into pedestrians at a bus stop 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 a Tel Aviv suburb. 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 25 Israelis.