Seven Israelis were shot dead as they left a synagogue in East Jerusalem, in the latest episode of spiraling violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories over the past two days.
A gunman in a car waited Friday night until Shabbat prayers were over at a synagogue in Neve Yaakov, an Israeli settler neighborhood in occupied east Jerusalem, before opening fire on people leaving the building, said a preliminary investigation by the Israeli police. The attack occurred on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service said doctors pronounced five people dead at the scene and said two more died while receiving hospital care. The death toll was revised down from eight to seven, with at least nine more victims believed to be in critical condition.
Addressing reporters at the Israel National Police headquarters, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had conducted a security assessment and Israel would take immediate action with “determination and composure,” without elaborating. He called on the population not to take justice into his hands.
Television footage showed bodies strewn across the street, as police and ambulance sirens blared through Jerusalem late into the night.
Israel’s Channel 12 news reported that the gunman first attacked an elderly woman and a man on a motorcycle before approaching the synagogue, though police did not immediately confirm those details.
The attacker was shot and killed by officers while trying to flee, police said. Police said he was a resident of East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in 1967.
Arabic and Hebrew media reports identified him as a 21-year-old who had no security background.
The shooting on Friday night was the worst terror attack against Israelis in years, coming a day after the deadliest Israeli army raid on the occupied West Bank in two decades, which killed nine Palestinians.
The Thursday morning raid targeted Islamic Jihad militants in the Jenin refugee camp in northern Palestinian territory, prompting tit-for-tat rocket fire between the Gaza Strip and Israel in the early Friday and raised fears of a broader escalation. in the decades-long conflict.
Friday prayers at Jerusalem’s holy al-Aqsa Mosque in the Temple Mount complex, often a catalyst for violence, passed without incident before the night’s shooting.
Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai told reporters the attacker was believed to have acted alone, but officers were searching the area to rule out the possibility of accomplices.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the shooting, although a spokesman for Hamas, the armed Palestinian movement that controls the Gaza Strip, said the attack was linked to the Jenin raid.
The attack on the synagogue was a “natural response to the criminal actions of the occupation,” Hazem Qassem said. The smaller Gaza-based militant group, Islamic Jihad, also praised the attack without claiming responsibility.
Last year was the bloodiest in Israel and the West Bank since 2004, with some 250 Palestinians and 30 Israelis killed. Another 49 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip in a three-day surprise Israeli bombing campaign in August.
So far this month, 32 Palestinians have been killed.
Unconfirmed reports emerged late on Friday that an Israeli settler in the West Bank shot and wounded four Palestinians in the town of Beita, near Nablus. One person was reported to be in critical condition.
President Joe Biden spoke with Netanyahu to offer US support for the government and people of Israel, calling the shootings “an attack on the civilized world,” officials said. “The president emphasized America’s steadfast commitment to Israel’s security,” the White House said of the call.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is traveling to the region this weekend, said: “The United States condemns in the strongest terms the horrific terrorist attack. We are in close contact with our Israeli partners and reaffirm our unwavering commitment to Israel’s security.”
The US State Department, along with the UN and other international mediators, called on both sides to de-escalate the situation.
A spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: “It is particularly abhorrent that the attack occurred at a place of worship, and on the very day we commemorated International Holocaust Remembrance Day.”
The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, described the attack as “horrific,” adding: “We stand with our Israeli friends.”
Read Also: Daniel Harris Wiki, Biography, Age, Family, Height, Fast Facts