Israeli security officers and members of the Zaka Rescue and Recovery team carry the body of a Palestinian man who was shot dead by Israeli police after he killed an Israeli and wounded four others in an attack. gun attack in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Mahmoud Illean / AP
hide captions
switch captions
Mahmoud Illean / AP
Israeli security officers and members of the Zaka Rescue and Recovery team carry the body of a Palestinian man who was shot dead by Israeli police after he killed an Israeli and wounded four others in an attack. gun attack in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Mahmoud Illean / AP
JERUSALEM – A Palestinian attacker killed an Israeli and wounded four others before being shot dead by Israeli police near the entrance to a Jerusalem holy site on Sunday, police said.
Police said the attack took place near the entrance of a controversial flashpoint temple known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. Violence around the site, which is considered sacred by both faiths, has sparked previous skirmishes between Israel and Palestine, most recently in May.
Paramedics said one person was seriously injured, one was seriously injured and three others had minor injuries. Paramedics said the Palestinian attacker was confirmed dead at the scene.
Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital later said the seriously injured person had died; He was later identified as 26-year-old Eliyahu Kay, a South African who immigrated to Israel and worked at the Western Wall.
Rabbi Zevi Katzanelbogen, a resident of the Old City’s Jewish Quarter, said he was walking home from morning prayers at the Western Wall when he turned a corner and heard gunfire. Moments later, he was shot in the arm, he told reporters from his hospital bed.
Police said two of those with minor injuries were officers and identified the attacker as a 42-year-old east Jerusalem resident. Public Security Minister Omer Bar Lev told reporters that the gunman was a member of Hamas’ political arm from the Shuafat refugee camp in east Jerusalem, and that the man’s wife had left the country three days earlier.
Palestinian media identified the attacker as Fadi Abu Shkhaidem, and shared images of him wearing a long, black coat and carrying a gun similar to the one in police photos. He was a teacher at a high school near the Old City.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting that he had ordered security forces to remain vigilant to prevent further attacks.
The militant group Hamas praised the attack in a statement but did not stop claiming responsibility, calling the incident a “heroic operation”. It then declared Abu Shkhaidem as one of its members.
“Our people’s resistance will continue to be justified by all means and tools against the Zionist occupier until it achieves its desired goal,” said spokesman Abdel Latif al-Qanou. us and the occupation are expelled from the holy place and from all our lands.”
Dimiter Tzantchev, EU ambassador to Israel, said in a statement on Twitter that his thoughts were “with the victims of the cowardly attack in the Old City of Jerusalem” and condemned “this senseless attack aimed at on civilians. Violence is never the answer.”
Sunday’s incident was the second of its kind to occur in Jerusalem’s historic Old City in recent days. On Wednesday, a Palestinian teenager was shot dead after stabbing two Israeli border policemen.
In that incident, two officers were hospitalized and the teenager, identified by police as a 16-year-old from east Jerusalem, died at the scene.
Palestinians have committed dozens of stabbings, shootings and car crashes against Israeli civilians and security personnel in recent years. Palestinians and human rights groups attribute some of the alleged car crashes to accidents and accuse Israel of using excessive force.
However, shootings around the Old City of Jerusalem and its holy sites are relatively rare, and Israel maintains a substantial security presence in the area.
Israel captured east Jerusalem, including the Old City and its Christian, Muslim, and Jewish holy sites, along with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip during the 1967 Mideast war. It later annexed it. east of Jerusalem in a move not recognized by most of the international community.
Palestinians seek the occupied West Bank and Gaza for a future independent state, with east Jerusalem as the capital.
