Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Drive-By Killing Hits Beach as Mob Violence Rattles Tel Aviv

Two gunmen on a motorcycle killed a man as he drove near Tel Aviv’s bustling beachfront on Saturday, in what Israeli police suspected was the latest in a wave of gangland murders and attacks.

The drive-by shooting took place in broad daylight, as families and tourists walked nearby on the afternoon of the Jewish Sabbath.

This month alone, there have been three car bombings, two of them deadly, aimed at underworld figures, bringing back to the streets of Israeli cities the sounds of explosions that were once almost solely the hallmarks of Palestinian attacks during a 2000-2005 uprising.

Israel’s Internal Defence Minister, Yitzhak Aharonovitch, described the outburst of violence as “terrorism plain and simple” during a parliamentary address on Wednesday, stepping up pressure on police to catch the culprits.

Police said the man killed on Saturday was known to police, without going into further details.

“The murder is suspected to be part of a criminal turf war … The shooters fled the scene in a getaway vehicle,” the force said on Twitter.

“We heard the shooting when we were on our way here and couldn’t believe it was happening so close to us,” an Israeli woman called Dana told the Ynet news website.

A number of recent car bombs went off in residential neighbourhoods, one of them exploding at night near a kindergarten. In November a device was detonated in the vehicle of an Israeli prosecutor who dealt with high-level criminals.

Briefing parliament this week, police said explosives were widely available and relatively cheap.

Police chief Yohanan Danino said most of the explosives used by criminals came from army stockpiles.

“This has been going on for years but the phenomenon is growing,” he told reporters this week, adding that police were working with the military to prevent explosives reaching the streets The drive-by shooting took place in broad daylight, as families and tourists walked nearby on the afternoon of the Jewish Sabbath.

This month alone, there have been three car bombings, two of them deadly, aimed at underworld figures, bringing back to the streets of Israeli cities the sounds of explosions that were once almost solely the hallmarks of Palestinian attacks during a 2000-2005 uprising.

Israel’s Internal Defence Minister, Yitzhak Aharonovitch, described the outburst of violence as “terrorism plain and simple” during a parliamentary address on Wednesday, stepping up pressure on police to catch the culprits.

Police said the man killed on Saturday was known to police, without going into further details.

“The murder is suspected to be part of a criminal turf war … The shooters fled the scene in a getaway vehicle,” the force said on Twitter.

“We heard the shooting when we were on our way here and couldn’t believe it was happening so close to us,” an Israeli woman called Dana told the Ynet news website.

A number of recent car bombs went off in residential neighbourhoods, one of them exploding at night near a kindergarten. In November a device was detonated in the vehicle of an Israeli prosecutor who dealt with high-level criminals.

Briefing parliament this week, police said explosives were widely available and relatively cheap.

Police chief Yohanan Danino said most of the explosives used by criminals came from army stockpiles.

“This has been going on for years but the phenomenon is growing,” he told reporters this week, adding that police were working with the military to prevent explosives reaching the streets

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.