US national opened fire at a hotel in the resort town of Eilat on Friday in the southern Occupied Territories, killing a hotel employee over a work dispute as claimed, before being shot dead by security forces.

A US national opened fire at a hotel in the resort town of Eilat on Friday in the southern Occupied Territories, killing a hotel employee over a work dispute as claimed, before being shot dead by security forces, the occupation police stated.

The shooting, which Zionist police said was a purely criminal incident, took place at the five-star Leonardo Club hotel as the beach resort was packed with Zionists spending the week-long Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

The shooter "grabbed a gun from a security guard and used it against the person who had been supervising him, killing him," police spokeswoman Luba Samri told Agence France Presse.

She identified the victim as Armando al-Abed, a 33-year-old Arab Zionist from a Christian village in the northern Galilee region.

"He opened fire during the negotiations with police. They fired back and killed him."

Two other tourists were taken to hospital suffering from shock.

Unconfirmed reports in the Israeli media said the gunman, who was believed to be in his 20s, had arrived in the country as part of an American-Israeli exchange program.

In recent years, the crowded tourist resort of Eilat, which lies at the southernmost tip of the entity of occupation and close to the borders of Egypt and Jordan, has been a target for attacks by Sinai-based militants.