Shin Bet frees suspects after manhunt that shut down Tel Aviv
Security service says no evidence 2 East Jerusalem residents were planning terror attack in area
Two East Jerusalem residents arrested Thursday morning in Givatayim following a massive manhunt in the Tel Aviv area will be released after Shin Bet security services investigators found no evidence that the two were planning any terrorist activities.
The two will be freed shortly, the Shin Bet said in a statement.
They are electricians from East Jerusalem who came to Givatayim to carry out a job.
At approximately 10:30 a.m. Thursday, police shut down several streets in Tel Aviv 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.
Dozens of police cruisers and at least one helicopter surrounded and searched the area.
When they learned of the manhunt, the suspects reportedly left their vehicle and attempted to flee the police search on foot. They were apprehended shortly after 11:30 a.m., and were handed over to the Shin Bet for investigation.
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.