When Frida first looked out of her window onto the street below, she thought she could see a child playing with a toy gun.

“I would never imagine this could happen,” she told the JC as she stood on the Bnei Brak street corner at which three men were killed the night before.

“When I first heard the bangs, I thought it was children playing with Purim firecrackers."

The idea that a quiet sideroad deep in the heart of Tel Aviv’s Charedi community would be attacked by a gunman did not seem possible to her, or to many of the area’s other residents who gathered this Wednesday at the scene of the attack to mourn and rail against the government.

Diaa Hamarsheh, a 27-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank drove and walked through the densely packed suburb on Tuesday night, killing four civilians with an automatic weapon.

After six minutes of terror, Amir Khoury, 32, an Arab Christian policeman engaged him in a gun battle and killed him, before succumbing to his wounds.

Standing at the site of the attack, local resident Anant was in a state of shock.

“The sound of the gunshots still echoes in my mind,” she told the JC.

“Let me tell you what a nightmare it was… Our home is supposed to be the safest place.

“Suddenly we heard the sound of a gun firing. My daughter said it was a gun but I didn’t believe her.”

She ran to the window and saw a car below in which Rabbi Yakov Shalom was already bleeding to death, having been shot through its window. 

Shlomi, a young man standing amidst the crowd of local residents alongside his wife and baby, said he was taught by Rabbi Shalom’s brother.

“They are a warm family,” he told the JC.

“They are very giving. The rabbi used to teach kids. He would take care of every child as if they were his own.”

Rabbi Shalom’s brother, also a local rabbi, called him to warn there was a gunman prowling the neighbourhood, Shlomi claimed.

But, he added, just after the call ended the attacker began shooting Rabbi Shalom. He had no time to escape.

The rabbi was hit by just one bullet but died before he was able to get out of his car and return to his house just metres away.

Aside from the shock, a wave of anger directed at the government and Tel Aviv’s Palestinian workers was also evident.

At a memorial to the dead hastily set up outside the cornershop by which they were shot, and alongside candles flickering on the ground, a yellow sign directed at Israel’s Prime Minister read: “[Naftali] Bennet resign: Jewish blood is not to be wasted.”

One person in the crowd held a sign that said, “We want revenge”. 

And on a pillar outside the shop another said: “Don’t put the neighbourhood at risk. Don’t hire Arabs.”

A man who did not give his name told the JC: “They are letting the Arabs come and be the builders here. That is putting us in a hazard.”

Another man began shouting and pointing at the buildings under construction across the street, telling a small crowd assembled before him that the attacker had been sleeping in the building site with other Palestinian workers.

Amid a bigger crowd gathered around a TV crew, a woman was shouting that illegal immigrants from Palestine were to blame. 

Frida told the JC angrily that Palestinian workers drink and steal, and were to blame for bicycle thefts in the neighbourhood.

“The Arabs are being ungrateful for what they have here,” Anant chimed in.

“I think we should deport him [the attacker] and his family. We should deport every family of every person who came to perform terror attacks. 

“Deny all rights from him and give him a life sentence.”

Also killed on the street were two Ukrainian immigrants: Victor Sorokopot, 38, and Dimitri Mitrik, 23. The men were not Jewish but had lived in Israel for several years. 

A local businessman said he had helped them send money back to their family in Ukraine. 

A group of Ukrainians stood near the memorial to the victims, one with tears in his eyes. None wanted to talk about their compatriots. 

Despite the rowdy public gathering many said they were scared after three attacks killed 11 across Israel in just a week.

Anat said: “Our small kids panicked. They couldn’t sleep the whole night… We are anxious and scared. This happened in the heart of a quiet neighbourhood.”

One local Charedi man told the JC: “We feel fear and sadness. Something like this has never happened before. 

“Nobody here carries a weapon, we are unarmed. That’s why we are scared.”

Another man added: “We are very shocked, it’s a very close community. He came into the heart of the community and just started shooting.”

Ron, a Tel Aviv resident wrapped in tefillin and praying on the street, said he had come to commemorate the memory of those who died.

He said: “We didn’t sleep last night because of the grief. We never feel fear, it’s just out of solidarity.”

“Something must happen,” he added: “We can’t live this way.”