Six people dead and three wounded left an armed attack perpetrated by a man in a synagogue in East Jerusalem. Police reported that the attack was pursued and killed.
This Friday there was an armed attack on a synagogue in a Jewish settlement in occupied East Jerusalem, leaving six people dead. Attack that has been carried out by Palestinian militias in revenge for the death of 10 Palestinians by Israeli forces.
It is reportedly the deadliest attack in recent years in Israel.
“As a result of the shooting, seven civilians were killed and three others were injured with different levels of severity.”the police said in a statement.
In addition to the fatalities, the attacker was killed by the Police after he had fled.
“The terrorist was neutralized and later declared dead”as reported by the police.
In Israel, the term “terrorist” is often used for any attack committed by Palestinians for nationalist reasons, although the identity of the attacker has not yet been revealed.
Initially, the authorities had reported only the five people who died at the scene.
The incident occurred in Neve Yaakov, a settlement of Jewish settlers in occupied East Jerusalem, where a large police device has been deployed. On the scene, several Jews observe the development of the first investigations while a group of Palestinians celebrate.
“This is a very serious terrorist attack. We saw a woman and four men lying on the road. They suffered gunshot wounds and showed no signs of life, so we had to declare them dead,” said paramedic Fadi Dekidek from the Magen David Adom emergency service.
The attacker arrived by car at a building used as a synagogue, He opened fire and tried to flee. while the authorities seized a pistol, apparently the one used in the attack, according to local media, who say that the police were looking for other possible suspects who could have helped the gunman.
After the attack, The Islamist Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip de facto, celebrated the attack through the loudspeakers of the mosques, but without taking credit for it. Gunshots were also heard in the air in the coastal enclave as numerous motorists honked their horns shouting “God is great.”
“This heroic operation is in revenge for the martyrs of Jenin. The operation in Jerusalem is the natural response to the occupation crimes in Jenin,” Hamas spokesman Hazam Qassem said.
For its part, the Islamic Jihad celebrated “the heroic operation that shows that the enemy only understands the language of force” and “that the Palestinian people live in political and geographical unity.”
As news of the attack spread in the media, celebrations were heard in Palestinian cities in the occupied West Bank, including Ramallah, Jenin and Nablus, as well as in the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem.
This incident comes amid an escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
This Friday Israel shelled the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the firing of several rockets from the coastal enclavea day after ten Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank by Israeli forces, nine of them during a military raid on the Jenin refugee camp.