WarSclerotic

Nashat Milhem, the gunman who killed three Israelis last week in Tel Aviv, was shot and killed by Israeli forces in northern Israel on Friday afternoon.

He was located in northern Israel, near his home in the Arara area. Initial reports said he had been “neutralized.” It was later confirmed that he had been killed.

Milhem was tracked down to the building where he was hiding out, opened fire on the forces, and was shot dead, Israeli security officials said in a statement. An inaccurate initial report said that he had been shot in a mosque in Umm al-Fahm.

Channel 2 reported that the forces, from an elite police unit, had sought to capture him alive, but were fired upon by Milhem, who was using the same weapon he used for last Friday’s shootings.

Channel 2 said he was tracked down to a building where his family had lived in the past.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the security forces for the operation.

The body of Nashat Milhem, in a photograph released by Israeli security forces, January 8, 2015 (Channel 2)

Five people were arrested in relation to the case shortly before Milhem was found.

Several members of his family had been arrested in the course of the manhunt, and police and the Shin Bet were investigating which, if any, friends and relatives, had helped him before and after the January 1 shootings.

A Channel 2 report said Milhem was located in recent days via a “personal item” that was found in the area of his hometown in Arara. The item was checked and found to match his DNA. He was then tracked down.

The TV report also said security authorities were investigating whether he had been affiliated to Islamic State, though there was no confirmation of this.

Channel 2 quoted security officials saying there was “no doubt” that he had opened fire in Tel Aviv last week “for nationalistic reasons,” rather than for criminal or any other motive. Tellingly, Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon had referred to Milhem earlier Friday as a terrorist — a term Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not use when discussing the case in recent days.

Early indications were that Milhem had been in the Arara area for almost the entire past week, possibly changing hideouts, security sources said.

Hundreds of police officers had deployed in northern Israel and in the Tel Aviv area Friday, and inspection checkpoints were set up at several locations, a week after the deadly shooting attack by Milhem at a bar on Tel Aviv’s busy Dizengoff Street. Milhem killed two people in a Tel Aviv bar last Friday, before he went on to murder a cab driver whose taxi he hailed to make his escape.

Police on Friday also descended in large numbers on a neighborhood in the Arab village of Arara, the hometown of Milhem. Authorities had warned he was armed, dangerous and capable of striking again.

Israeli security forces during a hunt for Nashat Milhem, the suspect in a January 1, 2015, fatal Tel Aviv shooting attack, on January 5, 2016. (Photo by Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Israel Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich indicated at a press conference Tuesday that Milhem was no longer believed to be in Tel Aviv, although he refused to elaborate. Alsheich said it was possible to “dramatically reduce the tension in the Tel Aviv area.” He said he could not elaborate “in order to not cause harm” to the ongoing investigation.

Israel Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich speaks with reporters during a press conference in the northern Israeli city of Carmiel on January 5, 2016. (screen capture: Israel Police)

Milhem was known to have fled the scene of the shooting on Dizengoff Street on foot, and hailed a cab on nearby Ibn Gabirol Street. The cabbie drove to north Tel Aviv, where Milhem worked. There, Milhem is said to have killed the driver, Ayman Shaaban, outside the city’s Mandarin Hotel. He then drove the cab himself to Namir Road, where he abandoned it near a bus stop.

Milhem allegedly killed two people in a shooting attack outside the Simta Bar on Tel Aviv’s busy Dizengoff Street last Friday, New Year’s Day, before fleeing and disappearing. Shift manager Alon Bakal, 26, and patron Shimon Ruimi, 30, were killed in a hail of bullets as the suspected gunman opened fire with a submachine gun he allegedly stole from his father. Seven people were also wounded.

Nashat Milhem, the Arab Israeli man who allegedly carried out the shooting attack in Tel Aviv on January 1, 2016. (Israel Police)

Police on Wednesday evening officially named Milhem as the killer of Bedouin taxi driver Ayman Shaaban some 60 minutes after the bar attack. In fleeing the scene, police said, Milhem shot dead Shaaban after hailing and escaping in his taxi.

According to a Channel 10 report, it would be more difficult for Israeli authorities to track down Milhem in the north than in the West Bank, where the Shin Bet security service has many informants. Police assessments quoted by the TV station said Milhem had likely received assistance both before and after Friday’s attacks.