Israeli police say at least seven people have been killed and three injured in a shooting near a synagogue Friday in Jerusalem. This happened when tensions between Israel and the Palestinian territories were high.
Police and ambulance services say two people were shot and injured in Jerusalem’s City of David neighborhood on Saturday. Shaare Zedek Medical Center said the victims, one in their 20s and the other in their 40s or 50s, were taken to the trauma unit.
In a statement, police said: “The suspect in the shooting was neutralized” after a “large police force was called to the scene”. The incident is being treated as a suspected terror attack, according to a preliminary report by the Jerusalem police.
Police say the gunman was later killed by them on Friday. Police Chief Yaakov Shabtai called it “one of the worst terror attacks in recent years”. “Seven civilians were found dead as a result of the shooting and three others were injured in various ways,” police said.
Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency rescue service said four men and a woman who were shot at the scene were pronounced dead. Five people were taken to hospitals, where a man and a woman were later found dead.
The MDA said that among the injured is a 15-year-old boy. A police statement says the attack took place around 8:15 p.m. local time near a synagogue on Neve Yaakov Street.
Shabtai said the gunman “started shooting at anyone who got in his way. He got in his car and started shooting people at close range with a gun.” The man then got into a car and drove off. Police say he was killed in a shootout with police.
Police said in a statement that the shooter was a 21-year-old man from East Jerusalem who appeared to have acted alone. East Jerusalem is a part of the city that is largely made up of Palestinians. In 1967 it was taken over by Israel.
On Friday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told people not to retaliate. “I urge people not to break the law themselves. For this reason we have the army, police and security forces. “They do and will do what the cabinet tells them to do,” he said.
According to CNN, this happened one day after the deadliest day for Palestinians in the West Bank in more than a year. Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians and wounded several others in the West Bank town of Jenin on Thursday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. This caused the Palestinian Authority to stop cooperating with Israel on security issues.
In what Israeli police called a “violent disturbance” near Jerusalem that day, a tenth Palestinian was killed. After rockets were fired at Israel overnight, Israel launched an airborne assault on the Gaza Strip Friday morning local time.
Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s controversial national security minister, went to the scene of the attack on Friday evening. He told the angry people who sang “this can’t go on” “I can tell you, [the people chanting] you’re right. The burden is on us. It can’t go on like this,” said Ben Gvir, who also leads the far-right Jewish Power Party.
Some people at the scene chanted, “You are our voice, we support you,” to show their support for Ben Gvir. Hadas Gold and his team from CNN were also at the scene of the shooting on Friday night. They heard what sounded like celebratory gunfire and car horns from Beit Hanina, a nearby neighborhood where most people are Palestinian.
Friday’s attack on a synagogue in Jerusalem was called a “heinous terror attack” by the White House. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement that the US administration “fully supports” Israel.
The US State Department also said, “in the strongest terms,” that what appeared to be a terrorist attack in Jerusalem was wrong. “This is appalling,” said Vedant Patel, a State Department spokesman. “Our thoughts, prayers and condolences are with those injured or killed in this horrific act of violence.”
Patel said no change was expected in the schedule of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s upcoming trip to Egypt, Israel and the West Bank. The shooting was also condemned by the EU, France and the UK.
“I am shocked by the reports of the terrible attack in Neve Yaakov tonight. Attacking worshipers in a synagogue on Erev Shabat is a particularly heinous act of terrorism. The UK stands with Israel,” British Ambassador to Israel Neil Wigan wrote on Twitter that the UK stands with Israel.
Dimiter Tzantchev, the EU ambassador to Israel, also called the violence “pointless”. In a tweet, he said: “Terror is never the answer.” And the French embassy in Israel tweeted that the act was even worse because it happened on a day when people around the world commemorate the Holocaust.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned Friday’s deadly attack, his spokesman said. “It is especially terrible that the attack happened in a house of prayer and on the same day we commemorated the Holocaust,” he said.
Guterres also expressed concern “about the current escalation of violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory,” urging everyone to “exercise utmost restraint.”
