A 23-year-old American citizen snatched a security guard’s gun and
opened fire in an Eilat hotel on Friday morning, leaving one person dead
and three others suffering from shock.Two people were evacuated to the
Joseftal Medical Center.
The New York man was in Israel as part
of an Oranim exchange program, supported by the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI)
and was fired from
his internship in the hotel kitchen a day before the shooting.
He arrived in the morning hours
to the hotel’s kitchen, where he began arguing with an employee. The man grabbed a gun from a
security guard who tried to break up the fight, and started shooting, killing his fellow kitchen
employee. Police later identified the victim as Armando Abed from
Mi'ilya, aged 33.
Police said that the gunman subsequently
barricaded himself in the kitchen and they deployed special patrol
units. Officers conducted negotiations with the shooter and said that he
didn't have hostages.
About an hour after the incident began,
the Counterterrorism Unit shot and killed the gunman in the kitchen.
Shots were fired back and forth but no police were injured in the raid.
JTA contributed to this report