Police expand manhunt for Tel Aviv killer to northern Arab towns

Police Commissioner Insp.-Gen. Roni Alsheich ordered the deployment of large numbers of police to the towns bordering the Green Line.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Updated: JANUARY 6, 2016 10:12
The suspect is seen on closed-circuit television just moments before opening fire on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv (photo credit: Courtesy)
The suspect is seen on closed-circuit television just moments before opening fire on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Israel Police began searching Arab towns in northern Israel as the manhunt for Tel Aviv shooter Nashat Milhem reaches its fifth day.
In the early morning hours, Police Commissioner Insp.-Gen. Roni Alsheich ordered the deployment of large numbers of police to the "Triangle" cluster of northern Arab towns, including Kafr Qara, Ar'ara, Baqa al-Gharbiyye and Umm al-Fahm, bordering the Green Line, after days of intensive searches in the metropolitan Tel Aviv area proved fruitless.
The expanded search in the North also comes following information on Tuesday that Milhem managed to escape Tel Aviv after killing two and wounding eight others on the city's popular Dizengoff Street on Friday, as well as murdering a taxi driver.
On Tuesday, Muhammad Milhem, the father of a fugitive terrorist suspect,  was arrested on suspicion of being an accomplice to Friday’s shooting attack that took the lives of two Israelis in Tel Aviv. The development was dramatic since just one day before, Muhammad spoke to the press, in order to plead with his son to turn himself in to authorities.
A brother of Milhem’s, Juadat, was also arrested on Saturday on suspicion of assisting his brother, and is set to be released on Wednesday.
Nashat Milhem, a native of Arara, is suspected of having gunned down Alon Bakal of Karmiel, 26, and Shimon Ruime of Ofakim, 30, during the shooting attack at the Simta bar on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv.
Milhem is also suspected of murdering Ayman Shaaban, a taxi driver from Lod.
Police believe Milhem hailed Shaaban’s cab on Ibn Gvirol Street just after the murder and rode with him to an open area near the Glilot Interchange, where he murdered him.
Ben Hartman contributed to this report.