Tel Aviv police continue searching for terror suspect "who had second thoughts"

Police receive a call from man saying he was sent from Hebron to carry out attack but that he changed his mind.

By BEN HARTMAN
Traffic jam [illustrative] 390 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Traffic jam [illustrative] 390
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Tel Aviv police continued to search the city Monday night, hours after they received a call from a man purporting to be a terrorist sent to carry out a bombing.
In a tape leaked on Israeli social media, a man can be heard telling a female dispatch officer that he is from Hebron and had been sent to Tel Aviv to carry out an attack. He “was carrying things on his body,” he said, apparently implying explosives.
He said he had changed his mind and wanted to go home, and that his mother had tried to stop him from carrying out the attack.
Tel Aviv police would not confirm if the recording was real but said they did receive a call from a man saying he had been sent to the city to carry out a bombing and that the call was the reason authorities were carrying out searches.
Since late afternoon on Monday, officers were searching the city with the support of Border Police and special patrol units but had made no arrests, police said.
For a short period of time the entrances and exits to Tel Aviv were closed off, but were reopened later on.
There was heavy traffic on highways in the Tel Aviv area long afterward.
Around the same time the call was placed, Tel Aviv police announced that district commander Asst.-Ch. Bentzi Sau had ordered increased patrols because of the security situation.
They called on the public to increase their awareness of anything out of the ordinary.