An Israeli woman, 30, was shot dead in front of her three young children on Beersheba’s Jerusalem Boulevard on Monday evening, police said.

The woman was shot multiple times. A manhunt was launched to catch the assailant, who fled the scene after the attack.

According to Channel 2, a police source said the three children were taken into the care of welfare services while police investigate the circumstances of the attack.

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Almost immediately after the attack, which took place at 7:30 p.m. Monday, police said they were treating the attack as criminal, not terror.

Police said the victim was the wife of an imprisoned member of a criminal organization who testified against the organization. In October, an indictment was filed against the husband for sending threatening messages to his wife. Police say they are exploring the possibility that the killing was an act of revenge against the husband, as well as the possibility that the husband ordered the shooting.

The woman was taken to Beersheba’s Soroka Medical Center in critical condition in the minutes following the shooting, but died of her wounds in the hospital.

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