Jerusalem [Israel], February 17: Two people were killed in Israel in a suspected terrorist attack, emergency rescue workers said on Friday, confirming earlier media reports.
Four people were injured, two of them seriously, a spokesman for the Magen David Adom rescue service said. One is a 16-year-old boy.
Israeli police described the incident as a terrorist attack.
The suspected perpetrator opened fire on bystanders at a bus stop near the Israeli port city of Ashdod in the south of the country. He was "neutralized" by a civilian at the scene.
He was killed, according to Israeli media reports.
Members of the security forces are searching the area for possible other suspects, the police said. The circumstances of the attack and the identity of the alleged perpetrator were initially unclear.
The incident came as war rages on across the border in the Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said their soldiers killed numerous Hamas fighters throughout the strip during the past day.
The conflict has driven more than half of the Gazan population to seek refuge from the fighting in Rafah in the very south of the strip.
However, the Israeli army is planning an offensive in the city on the orders of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the civilians due to be evacuated.
Concerns are mounting that this could nonetheless lead to mass civilian casualties with leaders around the world warning Rafah is overflowing with more than 1.3 million Palestinians displaced by war and there is nowhere they could go.
As leaders seek ways to agree on a ceasefire and look to the future beyond the conflict, Netanyahu earlier said Israel would not allow itself to be forced into a two-state solution in the wake of the Gaza war
Source: Qatar Tribune
