Jerusalem: Two more wounded in another shooting after seven killed outside synagogue

A Palestinian gunman opened fire in East Jerusalem on Saturday, wounding at least two people, less than a day after another attacker killed seven outside a synagogue in the city’s deadliest attack since 2008.

The shooting in East Jerusalem’s Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan, near the historic Old City, left at least two men, aged 23 and 47, injured in the upper body, paramedics said. They were fully conscious and in moderate to serious condition in the hospital, the medics added.

The police shot the attacker, but there was no immediate information on his condition. Authorities cordoned off the site of the attack and emergency and security vehicles swarmed the area as helicopters circled overhead.

Saturday’s events raised the possibility of an even bigger fire in one of the bloodiest months in Israel and the occupied West Bank in years.

On Friday, a Palestinian gunman killed at least seven people in a Jewish settlement with a large ultra-Orthodox population in East Jerusalem, including a 70-year-old woman.

The attack, which took place as worshipers observed the Jewish Sabbath, came shortly after an Israeli military strike killed nine people in the West Bank.

The new attack sparked public celebrations in both the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, where people shot guns into the air, sounded the horn and handed out candy.

The outbreak of violence, which also included a barrage of rockets from Gaza and retaliatory Israeli airstrikes, posed an early challenge to Israel’s new government, which is dominated by ultra-nationalists who have pushed for a hardline against Palestinian violence.

Israeli police said the attack took place in Neve Yaakov, a Jewish area in East Jerusalem. It said troops quickly arrived on the scene and shot the gunman.

“The terrorist was neutralized,” it said, using a term that typically means an attacker has been killed. There was no immediate confirmation of his condition.

Israel’s national rescue service, MADA, initially confirmed five dead and five others injured, including a 70-year-old woman, a 60-year-old woman and a teenage boy. Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem later said a man in his 40s had died from his injuries.

The shooting was the deadliest among Israelis since a 2008 shooting killed eight people at a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem, Israel’s foreign ministry said.

Prime Minister Netanyahu asks Israelis not to take the law into their own hands

On Thursday night, militants from Gaza fired a barrage of rockets into southern Israel, intercepting all or landing in open areas.

Israel responded with a series of airstrikes against targets in Gaza. No casualties were reported. Earlier in the day, Gallant had ordered Israel to prepare for further action in Gaza “if necessary”.

Responsibility for Friday’s shooting was not immediately claimed. In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said the attack was “a revenge and a natural response” to the killing of nine Palestinians in Jenin on Thursday.

At various locations in the Gaza Strip, dozens of Palestinians gathered in spontaneous demonstrations to celebrate the attack in Jerusalem.

In the center of Gaza City, celebratory gunfire could be heard as cars honked. In the West Bank city of Jericho, Palestinians launched fireworks and honked in celebration.

The attack escalated tensions that had already risen after the deadly military attack in the West Bank town of Jenin that killed nine people, including at least seven militants and a 61-year-old woman.

It was the deadliest single raid on the West Bank in two decades. A tenth Palestinian was killed in separate fighting near Jerusalem.

Palestinians had marched in anger earlier Friday as they buried the last of the 10 Palestinians killed a day earlier.

Fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian protesters erupted after the burial of a 22-year-old Palestinian north of Jerusalem and elsewhere in the occupied West Bank. Still, for most of the day, calm reigned in the disputed capital and in the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Signs that the situation could soon calm down disappeared with Friday night’s shooting. Israeli opposition leader, former Prime Minister Yair Lapid, called it “horrific and heartbreaking”.

Speaking to reporters at Israel’s National Police headquarters, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had conducted a security assessment and decided on “immediate actions”.

He said he would convene his security cabinet on Saturday night, after the end of the Sabbath, to discuss a further response.

Netanyahu declined to elaborate, but said Israel would act with “determination and composure.” He called on the public not to take the law into their own hands.

Tensions have skyrocketed since Israel ramped up its incursions into the West Bank last spring after a series of Palestinian attacks.

A major militant stronghold during the 2000-2005 intifada, Jenin has re-emerged as a single stronghold, and has been the center of many of Israel’s operations.

Last year, nearly 150 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, making 2022 the deadliest year in those areas since 2004, according to leading Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem. Last year, 30 people were killed in Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

Israel has established dozens of settlements in the West Bank, home to 500,000 people. The Palestinians and much of the international community view settlements as illegal and an obstacle to peace, even though talks to end the conflict have been dead for more than a decade.