The escalation between Israelis and Palestinians continues. Seven people were killed on Friday when a gunman opened fire during early Shabbat prayers near a synagogue in east Jerusalem before he was shot dead. This is the latest episode in a new outbreak of deadly violence between Israelis and Palestinians. Magen David Adom (MDA), the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, said it had identified a total of ten bullet-hit victims, including a 70-year-old man and a 14-year-old boy. 42 people were arrested, the police said on Saturday morning.
“Seven civilians” were killed by an armed gunman who walked around 20:15 (18:15 GMT) on the street near this synagogue in Neve Yaacov, a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem, part of the Holy City. Israel opened fire, according to a statement by the Israeli police. It was “one of the worst attacks in recent years” against Israelis, police chief Kobi Shabtai said on Israeli television.
Police said the gunman, a 21-year-old Palestinian from east Jerusalem, was shot dead by officers after he fled in a car. The attack, which has taken place for 36 hours in a context of renewed violence between Israelis and Palestinians, was immediately condemned by Washington.
Israeli Minister of Internal Security Itamar Ben Gvir, a figure from the extreme right, went to the scene where AFP journalists saw three bodies lying in the street. “I heard a lot of gunshots,” Matanel Almalem, an 18-year-old student who lives next door to the synagogue, told AFP.
The deadly attack at the exit of a synagogue in Jerusalem this Friday claimed seven victims. Symbol Sport PictureAlliance / Symbol Sport
“It’s absolutely appalling,” Vedant Patel, deputy spokesman for the State Department, told reporters. “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this apparent terrorist attack,” he added, specifying that there had been no change in the program of the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, who had to go to Egypt from Sunday, then to Jerusalem on Monday and Tuesday Ramallah. He will discuss “measures to de-escalate tensions,” he added. In a Foreign Ministry press release on Friday evening, France condemned the “horrific terrorist attack” in east Jerusalem that left at least seven people dead in a shootout near a synagogue.
“This attack on civilians at the time of prayer and on the international day of remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust is particularly despicable,” affirms the Quai d’Orsay.
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According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, the Hamas spokesman said the shooting was in response to the Israeli army’s raid on Jenin on Thursday that killed nine Palestinians in an “anti-terrorist” operation. The shooting comes the day after nine Palestinians were killed in a raid by Israeli forces in the camp of Jenin, a city in the north of the occupied West Bank.
In response to the Israeli raid on Jenin, the Palestinian Authority decided to end security cooperation with Israel, a first since 2020. France urged Israel and the Palestinians “to stop fueling the escalation” and the United States said they were ” deeply concerned by the escalation of violence”.
For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement on Thursday that his country was not looking for “escalation” but was preparing “for all scenarios”.