JERUSALEM — A US national opened fire at a hotel in the southern Israeli resort town of Eilat on the Red Sea on Friday, killing a hotel employee, before being shot dead by the security forces, Israeli police said.
The shooting, which took place in the Leonardo Club hotel, occurred as the southern beach resort was packed with tourists and Israelis enjoying the week-long Jewish holiday of Sukkot, or Feast of Tabernacles.
"An American tourist opened fire in the lobby of the Leonardo Club hotel in Eilat, killing one person," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.
Police later said the man had been working as a trainee sous-chef at the hotel and had recently been dismissed.
Early on Friday, he entered the hotel lobby and snatched a gun from one of the security guards.
"The shooter barricaded himself into the kitchen and was surrounded by police forces, including special units, who asked him to turn himself in," police spokeswoman Luba Samri told AFP.
"He opened fire during the negotiations with police. They fired back and killed him," she said.
Two other tourists were taken to hospital suffering from shock, she added.
"The man was a trainee sous-chef in the kitchen who had an argument with the person in charge of him after being fired," Samri said, describing the shooting as a purely criminal incident.
The identity of the shooter was not immediately clear and police could not immediately say whether he also held Israeli nationality.
Unconfirmed reports in the Israeli media said the gunman, who was believed to be in his 20s, had arrived in Israel as part of an American-Israeli exchange program.
"From what we understood from the hotel staff, one of the workers who had been dismissed from the hotel entered the dining room and started firing everywhere," a hotel guest called Alon Raz told the radio station of the Ynet news website.
"All the guests ran outside towards the pool and started shouting at everyone to go into their rooms," he said.
Police said hotel guests had been ordered to return to their rooms for their own safety until the gunman was apprehended.
In recent years, the crowded tourist resort of Eilat, which lies at the southernmost tip of the Jewish state and close to the borders of Egypt and Jordan, has been a target for attacks by Sinai-based militants.
In August, two blasts rocked the city, and there were two similar attacks in April, which caused slight damage but no casualties.
In August 2010, several rockets fired from Sinai, which were apparently aimed at Eilat, slammed into the nearby Jordanian port of Aqaba, killing one person and wounding five.
