JERUSALEM – At least four persons were killed and several seriously wounded in a mass shooting at a trendy Tel Aviv food market on Wednesday night. The attacks occurred near Israel’s version of the Pentagon.

Police said two assailants were in custody. One of the gunmen was wounded. Israeli authorities described the shootings as a terror attack.

The identities of the attackers were not released by police. Israeli media, citing security officials, said the assailants were cousins from a Palestinian village near Hebron in the West Bank.

At roughly 9:30 p.m. local time authorities were alerted to shots being fired in the crowded Sarona Market complex in central Tel Aviv. The open-air mall is located across the road from the Defense Ministry and the central headquarters of the Israel Defense Forces, one of the most secure sites in the country.

Israeli media reported that two men had opened fire on people in several locations.

Israel’s first aid agency Magen David Adom reported evacuating 10 injured people from the scene. Three of the injured died after reaching nearby Ichilov Hospital, and a fourth one died some time later; three more are in critical condition. It is uncertain if they will survive, the hospital spokesman told Israeli radio.

According to reports in the Israeli media, citing witnesses and emergency workers, the two shooters were dressed in smart attire, white shirts, ties, jackets and black pants. Initially it had been reported that they were dressed as ultra-Orthodox Jews but that was discounted by Israel police spokeswoman Luba Samri.

Samri said that police also ruled out the presence of a third assailant on the scene, even though the dead and injured were spread across a wide area in the streets around Sarona Market.

A witness at the scene told Israel’s Channel 10 news that the two men had sat first at the bar of a famous Israeli chocolatier, Max Brenner, and only afterward had opened fire at a busy restaurant opposite. Others who saw the two in the restaurant said they looked like lawyers.

Since the attack took place across the road from the military headquarters, guards and soldiers were on the scene within minutes.

As events were unfolding in Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu landed in Israel after a three-day trip to Russia. He immediately called a meeting of his emergency security cabinet in the Defense Ministry.

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