JERUSALEM, July 19 (AFP) - An Israeli judge was shot dead at pointblank range by an unknown assassin while he was driving near his home on the outskirts of Tel Aviv on Monday, police said.
The killer pulled up to district court judge Edi Azar's car on a motorcycle before firing three bullets at his chest, police said.
The motive behind the killing, the first known assassination of a judge in Israel, was not clear.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon expressed "deep shock" while Justice Minister Tommy Lapid said he was "shocked to the depths of my soul".
"This is the first murder of a judge in the history of the country, and this must give us food for thought about where Israel's society is headed," Lapid added.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the attack but provided no further details other than those broadcast by Israeli media.
The organisation has previously claimed responsibility for attacks that later turned out to be criminal.
Israeli public radio said the assassination bore the hallmarks of a professional hitman, indicating that it was of a criminal nature rather than related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Tel Aviv police chief Yossi Sitbon said: "At this stage, we have no idea why the judge who was involved with civil affairs has been assassinated."
The judge had previously ordered the Palestinian Authority to pay millions of dollars in compensation to Israeli victims of attacks.