Shooting at Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv
by David Lev
A Palestinian Authority man entered the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening and fired shots, police said. Large numbers of Israeli security officials converged on the embassy, located near the Hilton Hotel in a tony area of Tel Aviv, after witnesses said they heard shots inside the building.
Reports said that the shooter was an Arab from Ramallah who in the past had attempted to take hostages in the British embassy in Tel Aviv, using a fake gun. The man is known to Israeli authorities and is considered mentally deranged. Initial reports said that the man had attempted to take hostages in Tuesday's incident as well. He was apparently shot by embassy security staff.
Israeli medical and security officials were at first not allowed into the building by the Turkish staff, who insisted that the embassy was Turkish soil, and off-limits to the Israelis. A Magen David Adom crew outside the building said they had heard additional shots inside the building after the initial shooting, and some sources said that a hostage situation was in progress. The chief consular official in the embassy was said to be speaking to the man. About an hour after the shooting, Magen David Adom workers were allowed into the building, and said that the victim was in moderate condition.
According to the sources, the Arab insisted that Turkey protect him from Palestinian Authority forces, who he claimed were seeking to arrest him because he said he at one time worked with Israeli law enforcement authorities. An Israeli hostage negotiation team was on its way to the embassy as well.
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