BICOM

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced the arrest of a third suspect accused of involvement in the terror attack in Tel Aviv.

Prime Minister Netanyahu was visiting the site of the shooting in the popular Sarona market area. He said: “At this place, four innocent Israelis were murdered. We mourn their deaths.”

The victims were yesterday named as 40-year-old Ilana Nave, 41-year-old Ido Ben Ari, 58-year-old Michael Feige and 32-year-old Mila Mishayev.

Netanyahu added: “We caught the man who collaborated with the murderers.”

However, no further details about the suspect have been released. The two gunmen themselves were both apprehended at the scene, and one is being treated in an Israeli hospital.

Netanyahu explained that he had assembled the security cabinet “and we decided on a series of offensive measures”. He said that these included cancelling the work permits of the terrorists’ families and bolstering forces in the West Bank, with two additional battalions moved into the area.

Movement in and out of the village of Yatta, where the terrorists lived, will remain restricted while local residents continue to be interviewed. Meanwhile, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that the bodies of terrorists would not be returned to their families for the time being, as a deterrent measure.

The government also announced that Palestinians will not be permitted to travel from the West Bank into Israel until Sunday and that additional travel permits, which had been issued for Palestinians during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, were frozen. This weekend marks not only the first Friday of Ramadan, but also the Jewish festival of Shavuot. Large crowds are expected to descend on Jerusalem’s Old City for both occasions. Consequently, it is reported that thousands of police and border police officers will patrol Jerusalem’s Old City. Friday prayers at the al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount have previously been a flashpoint for violence.