Tel Aviv terror manhunt was false alarm

Two Palestinians from East Jerusalem were arrested following a massive manhunt for suspected terrorists in Tel Aviv on Thursday. It turned out, however, that they were just electricians out on a job.

The Israel Police conducted a huge search, employing a helicopter and shutting down major highways in Tel Aviv, after reports came in of a “suspicious” vehicle, driven by two East Jerusalem residents.

At approximately 10:30 a.m., police shut down multiple streets in the city and the neighboring suburb of Givatayim as they searched for a suspicious vehicle reported a short time earlier on Givatayim’s Katznelson Boulevard.

Coupled with intelligence reports, Dan District police concluded the vehicle, a blue Mitsubishi, may have been part of an attempted terror attack.

Eyewitnesses said police in the area around several Givatayim office buildings were searching with guns drawn.

The suspects were apprehended shortly after 11:30 a.m., and were handed over to the Shin Bet. The security agency interrogated the pair and found no evidence that they had planned to carry out a terrorist attack.

In response to the terror scare Thursday, the Givatayim municipality announced that city employees would be stationed at the entrances to schools and kindergartens beginning Sunday, until a security service could be hired to cover the city’s educational institutions.

Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.