By JOSEF FEDERMAN and ISABEL DEBRE (Associated Press)
JERUSALEM (AP) — A Palestinian gunman opened hearth exterior an east Jerusalem synagogue Friday evening, killing seven folks, together with a 70-year-old lady, and wounding three others earlier than he was shot and killed by police, officers mentioned. It was the deadliest assault on Israelis in years and raised the probability of extra bloodshed.
The assault, which occurred as residents have been observing the Jewish sabbath, got here a day after an Israeli navy raid killed 9 Palestinians within the West Bank. Friday’s capturing set off celebrations in each the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, the place folks fired weapons into the air, honked horns and distributed sweets.
The burst of violence, which additionally included a rocket barrage from Gaza and retaliatory Israeli airstrikes, has posed an early problem for Israel’s new authorities, which is dominated by ultranationalists who’ve pushed for a tough line in opposition to Palestinian violence. It additionally forged a cloud over a go to by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the area Sunday.
Addressing reporters at Israel’s nationwide police headquarters, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned he had held a safety evaluation and selected “immediate actions.” He mentioned he would convene his Security Cabinet on Saturday evening, after the top of the sabbath, to debate an additional response.
Netanyahu declined to elaborate however mentioned Israel would act with “determination and composure.” He referred to as on the general public to not take the regulation into their very own arms.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre mentioned the U.S. strongly condemned the assault and was “shocked and saddened by the loss of life,” noting it got here on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
U.S. officers mentioned later Friday that President Joe Biden spoke with Netanyahu to supply U.S. help to the federal government and folks of Israel, calling the shootings “an attack against the civilized world.” “The President stressed the iron-clad U.S. commitment to Israel’s security,” the White House mentioned of the decision.
Israeli police mentioned the shootings occurred in Neve Yaakov, a settlement with a big ultra-Orthodox inhabitants, and that the gunman fled in a automotive. Police mentioned they chased after him and after an trade of fireside, killed him.
Jerusalem police chief Doron Turjeman confirmed seven deaths, along with the shooter, and mentioned three folks have been wounded.
Police recognized the attacker as a 21-year-old east Jerusalem resident who apparently acted alone. Turjeman promised an “aggressive and significant” effort to trace down anybody who helped him.
Police additionally launched a photograph of the pistol it mentioned was utilized by the attacker.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant huddled with Israel’s navy chief and different prime safety officers and instructed them to help police and strengthen defenses close to Jerusalem and for Jewish settlements within the occupied West Bank.
“Israel’s defense establishment will operate decisively and forcefully against terror and will reach anyone involved in the attack,” Gallant mentioned.
Israel’s MADA rescue service mentioned that these killed included 5 males and two girls, amongst them a number of who have been 60 or older. Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital mentioned a 15-year-old boy was recovering from surgical procedure.
The assault was the deadliest on Israelis since a 2008 capturing killed eight folks in a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem, in line with the Foreign Ministry. Given the situation and timing, it threatened to set off a tricky response from Israel.
Overnight Thursday, Gaza militants fired a number of rockets into southern Israel, with all of them both intercepted or touchdown in open areas. Israel responded with airstrikes on targets in Gaza. No casualties have been reported, and calm had gave the impression to be taking maintain earlier than Friday evening’s capturing.
There was no fast declare of accountability. In Gaza, Hazem Qassem, spokesman for the ruling Hamas militant group, mentioned the assault was “a revenge and natural response” to the lethal navy raid Thursday.
At a number of places throughout the Gaza Strip, dozens of Palestinians gathered in spontaneous demonstrations to have fun the Jerusalem assault, with some popping out of dessert outlets with massive trays of sweets to distribute.
In downtown Gaza City, celebratory gunfire may very well be heard, as vehicles honked and calls of “God is great!” wafted from mosque loudspeakers. In numerous West Bank cities, Palestinians launched fireworks.
The assault escalated tensions that have been already heightened following Thursday’s raid within the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin, the place 9 folks, together with at the very least seven militants and a 61-year-old lady, have been killed. It was the deadliest single raid within the West Bank in twenty years. A tenth Palestinian was killed in separate preventing close to Jerusalem.
Angry Palestinians marched Friday as they buried the final of these killed a day earlier.
Scuffles between Israeli forces and Palestinian protesters erupted after the funeral for a 22-year-old Palestinian north of Jerusalem and elsewhere within the occupied West Bank, however calm prevailed within the contested capital and within the blockaded Gaza Strip for many of the day.
That all of a sudden dissolved with the east Jerusalem capturing, described as “horrific and heartbreaking” by Yair Lapid, the opposition chief and former prime minister.
Neve Yaakov is a spiritual Jewish settlement that Israel considers to be a neighborhood of its capital. Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its undivided capital, whereas the Palestinians search east Jerusalem, captured by Israel within the 1967 Mideast battle, as a capital of their future state.
Blinken’s journey will most likely now focus closely on decreasing tensions. He is more likely to focus on the underlying causes of the battle, the agenda of Israel’s new far-right authorities and the Palestinian Authority’s choice to halt safety coordination with Israel in response to the Jenin raid.
The Biden administration has been deeply engaged with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in latest days, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby mentioned, underscoring the “urgent need here for all parties to deescalate to prevent the further loss of civilian life and to work together to improve the security situation in the West Bank.”
Israel and Hamas have fought 4 wars and a number of other smaller skirmishes for the reason that militant group seized energy in Gaza from rival forces in 2007.
Tensions have soared since Israel stepped up raids within the West Bank final spring, following a collection of Palestinian assaults.
Nearly 150 Palestinians have been killed within the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 2022, making it the deadliest 12 months in these territories since 2004, in line with main Israeli rights group B’Tselem. Last 12 months, 30 folks have been killed in Palestinian assaults in opposition to Israelis.
So far this 12 months, 30 Palestinians have been killed, in line with a rely by The Associated Press.
Israel says many of the lifeless have been militants. But youths protesting the incursions and others not concerned within the confrontations even have been killed.
Israel says its raids are supposed to dismantle militant networks and thwart assaults. The Palestinians say they additional entrench Israel’s 55-year, open-ended occupation of the West Bank, captured together with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip within the 1967 Mideast battle.
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Associated Press author Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”