Israeli SWAT officers stormed a mosque in northern Israel and killed a man they identified as the Arab-Israeli who killed three people in Tel Aviv last week, Israeli media reported.
Nashat Melhem was shot dead on Friday afternoon in a shootout with police in Umm al-Fahm, according to Channel 2.
He had been the target of a massive manhunt in Tel Aviv, which then shifted to Israel’s north.
Police said Melhem on Jan. 1 killed two young men when he shot up a bar in central Tel Aviv and then murdered a taxi driver who transported him from the scene of the crime.
According to Channel 2, the breakthrough in the case came two days ago, when police found a personal item of Melhem’s near Umm al-Fahm, which helped narrow the search.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised security force’s action against Melhet, Army Radio reported. Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said it “proves once more that Israel will hunt down those who seek to harm it.”
According to Channel 2, Israeli security officials believe Melhem had support from Islamic circles in the Arara-Um al-Fahm region.
In the bar attack, 31-year-old Melhem killed Alon Bakal, a 26-year-old employee of the Simta bar, and Shimon Ruimi, 30, police said. Six others were wounded in the attack. It was one of just a handful of terrorist attacks in Tel Aviv and its suburbs, which were largely spared the explosion of terrorist attacks elsewhere in Israel and especially in the Jerusalem area.
More than 1,400 such attack were documented since Sept,. 1, the Israel Security Agency, or Shin Bet, said last week.
The taxi driver whom Milhem is said to have killed was Amin Shaaban, a 42-year-old Israeli-Arab from Lod who had 11 children.
Mohammed Milhem, the father of the alleged shooter, identified his son to police as the shooter in the hours after the attack after seeing his son in footage from surveillance cameras that documented the attack at the bar.
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