Katharine Lackey

USA TODAY

Israeli police continued to search Saturday for a gunman who killed two in a brazen attack on a popular bar in Tel Aviv.

The suspect was identified as Nashat Milhem, 31, an Arab-Israeli resident of Ar'ara in northern Israel. Spokeswoman Luba Samri told the Associated Press that police remained on "heightened alert" Saturday after authorities spent the night conducting a massive manhunt.

CCTV footage released shortly after the attack Friday afternoon shows a man in a food store taking a gun from his backpack and opening fire into the bar next door before fleeing the scene. At least three were wounded, and Israeli media put the number of injured as high as seven.

The motive behind the attack remained unclear Saturday, but the shooting comes amid three months of tensions and attacks between Palestinians and Israelis.

Israeli media reported the suspect's father called authorities after seeing footage of the attack. Family members told AP he was a troubled man who was "traumatized" after a cousin was killed by police in 2006. He later served time in prison for grabbing an Israeli officer's gun.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the site of the attack Saturday evening, where he praised Israeli Arabs for speaking out against violence but also warned against the “wild incitement by Islamic extremists against Israel in the Arab sector" in mosques, schools and on social media. He said there are "enclaves with no law enforcement with Islamist incitement and an abundance of illegal weapons."

Israel's Arab population makes up about one-fifth of the nation's 8.4 million people. They enjoy full rights but have long complained of unfair treatment and some identify more with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza than with Israel, AP reported.

“I am not willing to accept two states within Israel, a state of law for most of its citizens and a state within a state for some of its citizens. That era is over,” Netanyahu added.

In recent months, Palestinian attacks have killed 21 Israelis in stabbings, shootings and vehicle incidents. At least 131 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, 90 of them identified by Israel as assailants, according to the AP. The Israeli death toll does not include Friday's victims because the motive has yet to be determined.

Jerusalem's new normal: Arabs and Jews on edge amid near-daily attacks