Security assessment prompts police reinforcements in Tel Aviv
Law enforcement stopping and checking cars throughout area; a week after a deadly attack in the heart of Tel Aviv, the gunman is still on the loose.
Police deployed in large numbers in Tel Aviv and its environs on Friday following a security assessment, exactly one week after a terrorist murdered three people in the heart of the city.
Police stopped cars and requested drivers' IDs. Armed police officers were spotted on Dizengoff Street, not far from last week's attack, and near Dizengoff Center, among other places.
Meanwhile, the search for the alleged perpetrator of last week's attack, Nashat Melhem, continued further north in the Wadi Ara area. Police arrived at Kafr Qara in Wadi Ara on Friday morning and checked vehicles leaving the town. A Wadi Ara resident was arrested.
The alleged killer was named as Nashat Melhem from the Wadi Ara area after his father called police. "We are sick of this Nashat Melhem story," said Kafr Qara resident Said Masarwa. "When will they catch him and put an end to this? They're conducting searches every day." He urged police to increase efforts "in order to reach the killer who poses a danger to us all."
A member of the Melhem family said: "In the end they'll turn all our relatives into terrorists. This morning I walked through the police checkpoint and they started asking me questions as though I were hiding the gunman. My children were very scared. After they finished checking us, they started crying. We are going through difficult and complicated days. I hope the gunman turns himself in, because he's the only one who can save us from the treatment we are getting."
Eli Senyor and Yoav Zitun contributed to thi report.
