KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine, July 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The White House said Friday it had "no evidence" that the El Al ticket counter shooting in Los Angeles on the July 4 Independence Day holiday was the work of terrorists. However, Israel’s Shin Bet (Internal) Security Service decided to be circumspect and label it a hostile terrorist act, news agencies reported.

"There is no evidence, no indication at this time, that this is terrorist," While House spokesman Ari Fleischer said as U.S. President George W. Bush began a three-day birthday vacation at his father's house in this Atlantic coast resort town.

"The President extends his sympathy and his condolences to the victims of this crime," Fleischer told reporters aboard Bush's Air Force One airplane on the way to Maine.

However, the Israeli officials and security agencies drew their own conclusions, almost immediately after the shooting incident.

There had been no intelligence warning of an attack by any organization on an Israeli target in the U.S., but the way in which the attack took place, its location and timing, seemed to point to terrorism. Unless proved otherwise, that is how the Shin Bet decided to regard it, according to Israeli daily newspaper Ha’aretz.

Earlier Friday, the FBI (U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation) said that Hadayet apparently was not connected to any terror organizations, and probably acted on his own.

Hadayet, who also goes by the last name Ali, was a legal resident who worked as a limousine driver, FBI spokesman Matt McLaughlin said. The motive remained uncertain and there was no evidence anyone else was involved, McLaughlin said.

"We've never said it's not terrorism," McLaughlin said. "We can't rule that out, but there's nothing to indicate terrorism at this point."

The FBI spokesman suggested that the attack might fall into the category of a hate crime and said the man was heavily armed.

Israeli officials said Thursday that the Los Angeles Airport shooting was a terror attack, but the FBI maintained that there was no reason to believe the incident was an act of terrorism, reported Ha’aretz.

The two people killed at the attack at El Al's ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport were identified as Ya'akov Aminov, 47, and El Al stewardess Vicky Chen, both of them residents of Los Angeles, Israel Radio reported Friday morning.

Contrary to statements by Israeli officials that the shooting was apparently a terrorist attack, a senior FBI official said Friday that the shooting was not an act of terror. "At this point we have no reason to believe this was an act of terrorism," said Ron Iden, assistant director of the Los Angeles FBI office said Friday.

Israeli Transportation Minister Ephraim Sneh reiterated Friday that the shooting was an apparent act of terror, saying that the it was a "logical assumption" that the incident was a terrorist attack, in an interview to CNN.

"We are going to assume that it's a terror attack until proven otherwise," the minister told Israel Radio on Friday.

For his part, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Thursday that “he terrorists” deliberately chose the American holiday for their attack.

Perez spokeswoman Yaffa Ben-Ari issued a statement saying: "The terrorists deliberately chose the Fourth of July to carry out their crime on the soil of the United States."

Yuval Roten, Israeli Consul General in Los Angeles, also said early Friday morning that the shooting appeared to be an act of terror.

U.S. officials identified the gunman, who killed two people at the Israeli airline's Los Angeles counter before an El Al security agent shot him dead, as an Egyptian immigrant on an FBI watch list.

FBI spokesman Matthew McLaughlin identified the gunman as 41-year-old Hesham Mohamed Hadayet of Egypt, who moved to the United States 10 years ago and worked as a limousine driver.

Egyptian officials were not immediately available for comment.

"There might be some terrorist links," McLaughlin told reporters Friday, adding that Hadayet was "heavily" armed with two pistols and a knife.