Three people were shot and wounded in Tel Aviv on Thursday in an attack carried out by a member of the armed wing of the Palestinian group Hamas, Israeli police said.

The shooting took place at about 8:40 pm (1840 GMT) on Dizengoff Avenue, a popular nightlife spot in the centre of Tel Aviv, where a Palestinian attack killed three people in April 2022.

"The three victims of today's attack in Tel Aviv are still alive, correcting the earlier statement that one of them had been declared dead," Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne told AFP.

In a statement, Hamas said the attack had been carried out by a member of its armed wing.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on an official visit to Rome, wished "a speedy recovery to the injured" in a brief televised statement.

Israeli police said a suspect had shot at a pedestrian before being neutralised by officers.

"I heard gunshots and saw people running away. I immediately loaded my gun and ran towards" the scene, David Friedmann, a police officer who helped shoot the assailant, told AFP.

At one point, "I fired three rounds at him, [a colleague] also fired three rounds, and when he fell, he was shot again so he wouldn't get up again," he added.

Israel's Internal Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir congratulated "the police officer who, in a courageous act, eliminated the heinous terrorist and saved many lives".

The Magen David Adom emergency response service said the three wounded had been rushed to hospital.

"We evacuated the three with gunshot wounds, one of them in critical condition, one seriously wounded, and one lightly wounded," Magen David Adom director Eli Bin told Israel's Kan television.

The United States swiftly denounced the attack.

"We strongly condemn today’s terrorist attack in Tel Aviv, which injured several Israeli civilians," US State Department spokesman Ned Price tweeted.

"We wish a full and quick recovery to those hurt and reiterate our ironclad support for Israel's security."

 

- 'De-escalate' -
 

On Thursday, three armed Palestinians were killed in an Israeli military operation in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

Several Palestinian armed groups had called Tuesday for revenge for the recent deaths of six Palestinians in an Israeli army raid in the northern West Bank.

During a brief visit to Tel Aviv on Thursday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called for "the need to de-escalate, to lower tensions and to restore calm, especially before the holidays of Passover and Ramadan."

In Beitar Illit, a Jewish settlement in the West Bank southwest of Jerusalem, the army said bomb disposal experts had detonated a suspicious package found on a bus Thursday evening.