You're reading: Israeli forces kill American gunman in hotel shoot-out

JERUSALEM - Israeli forces shot and killed an American man who opened fire in a seaside hotel packed with tourists on Friday, killing one person, a police spokesman said.

Police surrounded the hotel the Red Sea resort city of Eilat
after the man “grabbed a weapon from a security guard and shot a
hotel worker”, who died of his injuries, spokesman Micky
Rosenfeld said.

The gunman barricaded himself in the hotel kitchen, shooting
back at law enforcement officers. He was shot dead by members of
a military counter-terrorism squad, a military source said.

Rosenfeld said the motive for the attack was unclear, but
suggested a criminal – rather than political – reason seemed
possible as he had once been employed at the hotel.

Eilat, on the border with Egypt and Jordan, has been a
target of militant attacks in the past, and has come under
rocket fire from Egypt’s Sinai in the past several months. The
city is currently crowded with both foreign tourists and
Israelis on a seven-day Jewish religious holiday.