One man was killed and at least five others injured after a gunman opened fire near the border with the occupied West Bank on Sunday. Israeli emergency services were left surveying the scene in the aftermath of the attack. It quickly became one of the more serious incidents in an already tense period in the region.
The way the attack unfolded pointed to a mobile assault. Authorities say the shooter was inside a vehicle when he opened fire, and that he did so in three separate locations rather than at a single spot. That pattern spread the danger across more than one site before he was stopped.
The human toll was severe. Beyond the one man killed, at least five other people were wounded, and two of them remained in critical condition. The injuries left families scrambling, with one survivor recounting how his father told him he had been shot and urged him to come quickly to a nearby petrol station.
The response from security forces was swift and forceful. The gunman was killed by Israeli police at the scene. A second suspect was also arrested, and officials say that man attempted to stab officers with a glass bottle while he was being taken into custody.
Details then emerged about who the attacker was. Police identified the gunman as a man in his 20s and a resident of a nearby Israeli city that is mainly populated by Arab citizens. The identification offered an early outline of the suspect even as the wider investigation continued.
The question of motive and responsibility remained open. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, although the Palestinian militant group Hamas praised the shootings without claiming to have carried them out. Authorities said they were investigating the entire incident as a suspected act of terrorism.