The victims of the attack and the work of the emergency service / AFP
JERUSALEM
A Palestinian youth fired a gun outside an East Jerusalem synagogue, killing seven people, including a 70-year-old woman, as well as wounding three others before he was shot dead by police, officials said. It was the deadliest attack on Israelis in years and raised the likelihood of more bloodshed amid the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
The attack, which took place as worshipers celebrated the Jewish Sabbath, came a day after Israeli troops killed nine Palestinians in a raid in the West Bank. The new attack sparked public celebrations in both the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, where people fired guns into the air, honked their horns and distributed sweets.
“Police forces quickly arrived at the scene and confronted the terrorist”
The outbreak of violence, which also included rocket fire from Gaza and retaliatory Israeli shelling, represents a challenge to the new Israeli government, dominated by ultranationalists who have advocated taking a hard line against Palestinian violence.
Israeli police said the attack occurred in Neve Yaakov, in east Jerusalem.
“Tonight around 8:30 p.m., a terrorist approached a synagogue on Neve Yaakov Avenue in Jerusalem and opened fire on people in the area,” a police statement said.
“Police forces quickly arrived at the scene, confronted the terrorist” and he “was neutralized,” he added.
Jerusalem police chief Doron Turjeman told reporters that the assailant was killed after he fled into a car, was intercepted and fire was exchanged.
He confirmed seven deaths, in addition to the attacker, and said that three people were injured.
Police identified the attacker as a 21-year-old East Jerusalem resident who apparently acted on his own. Turjeman promised to track down anyone who helped him.
Police also released a photo of the gun which they claim was used by the assailant.
Israel’s MADA rescue service said the dead included a 70-year-old woman. Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital later said a 15-year-old boy was recovering from surgery.
“I heard a real shooting,” said Matanel Almalem, an 18-year-old student who lives near the synagogue.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (center) walks near National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir / AFP
It was the largest massacre of Israelis since 2008, when eight people were shot dead at a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem, according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry.
So far no one has claimed responsibility for the shooting. In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said the attack was “a revenge and natural response” to the killing of nine Palestinians in Jenin on Thursday by the Israeli army.
RAID ON JENIN
Nine people were killed in an Israeli raid on the Jenin Palestinian refugee camp in the northern West Bank on Thursday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Another Palestinian was killed later that day by Israeli fire in a separate incident near Ramallah, also in the West Bank.
Israel claimed that it was a “counter-terrorism” operation against the armed organization Islamic Jihad.
The Palestinian Authority called it a “massacre” and announced that it was ceasing security cooperation with Israel.
According to the UN, there have not been as many deaths in an Israeli operation in the West Bank since records of those operations began in 2005.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called for “an end to the endless cycle of violence” and said he was “very concerned about the sharp increase in Palestinian deaths in Israeli operations in the occupied West Bank.”
The Palestinian Minister of Health, Mai Al Kaila, denounced that the Israeli forces, before withdrawing, “deliberately threw tear gas grenades” into the pediatric ward of a Jenin hospital, which “caused some children to suffocate.” ”.
“No one deliberately fired tear gas at a hospital (…), but the operation took place not far from a hospital and it is possible that tear gas entered through an open window,” an Israeli army spokesman said.
The Jenin refugee camp, established in 1953, houses about 20,000 refugees.
The Israeli army, which has occupied the West Bank since 1967, carries out almost daily operations in that territory and particularly in the Jenin and Nablus sectors, strongholds of armed Palestinian groups. (AFP)
