CNN
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Two people were injured in a gun attack in Jerusalem on Saturday, emergency services said, a day later a gunman kills at least seven people near a synagogue in the city.
According to police, the two men injured in the City of David area of Jerusalem on Saturday, one 22 years old and the other in their 40s, were father and son. A 13-year-old boy who police said shot and wounded the pair was “disabled and wounded” by “two passersby carrying licensed firearms”.
Tensions in Israel and Palestinian territories remained high after Friday’s shootings, which police chief Yaakov Shabtai described as “one of the worst terrorist attacks in the past few years.” According to police, the shooter in that attack was also later killed by police forces.
“Following the gun attack, seven civilians were killed and three others were injured with other degrees of injury,” police said.
Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency rescue service said five of the shooting victims died at the scene: four men and one woman. Five people were transported to hospital, where another man and woman were declared dead. Among the injured was a 15-year-old boy, the MDA said.
The attack happened around 8:15 p.m. local time on Friday, near a synagogue on Neve Yaakov Street, according to a police statement.
Shabtai said the gunman “started shooting at anyone who got in his way. He got in his car and started killing people with a pistol at short range. He then fled the scene in a vehicle and was killed following a gunfight with police forces, police said.
Police identified the gunman as a 21-year-old resident of East Jerusalem, saying in a statement that he appeared to have acted alone. East Jerusalem is a predominantly Palestinian part of the city, which was captured by Israel in 1967.
Referring to Saturday’s attack, a community leader said the 13-year-old gunman knew a 16-year-old Palestinian who had died from a gunshot wound the day before. Jawad Siam, director of the East Jerusalem non-profit Silwanic, told CNN the family of the suspect denied their 13-year-old son was responsible for Saturday’s attack, which happened near the Mosque. Al-Aqsa in Silwan, East Jerusalem.
According to Siam, the 13-year-old suspect was a neighbor of a 16-year-old Palestinian who died from a gunshot wound in the hospital on Friday night. The 16-year-old was shot by Israeli police on Wednesday.
Of the two injured on Saturday, the 22-year-old is currently in a serious but stable condition, under anesthesia and on a ventilator in the intensive care unit, while his 47-year-old father is in the hospital. moderate and stable condition.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged people to resist the revenge attacks on Friday night. “I urge people not to arbitrarily embrace the law. For that purpose, we have the army, the police and the security forces. They act and will act on the instructions of the cabinet,” he said.
Friday’s incident happened a day later deadliest day for Palestinians in the West Bank for more than a year, according to CNN records.
On Thursday, Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians and wounded several others in the West Bank city of Jenin, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, prompting the Palestinian Authority to suspend security coordination with Israel. A tenth Palestinian was killed that day in what Israeli police called a “violent disturbance” near Jerusalem.
Overnight, Friday morning local time, Israel launched air strikes on the Gaza Strip after rockets were fired towards Israel.
Israel’s controversial National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir visited the scene of the attack on Friday night, telling angry chanters that “can’t go on like this.”
“I can tell you, [the people chanting] You’re right. The burden is on us. It cannot go on like this,” said Ben Gvir, who also leads the far-right Jewish Power party.
Some at the scene were chanting in support of Ben Gvir, saying, “You are our voice, we support you.”
CNN’s Hadas Gold and the team, who were also at the scene of Friday night’s shooting, heard what sounded like celebrating gunfire and car horns honking from the predominantly Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Hanina near.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the White House condemned the “cruel terrorist attack” at a synagogue in Jerusalem on Friday and said the US government had extended its “support full support” for Israel.
The US State Department also condemned the “clear terrorist attack” in Jerusalem “in the strongest possible terms”.
“This is truly horrific,” said Deputy State Department spokesman Vedant Patel. “Our thoughts, prayers and condolences go out to those killed and injured in this heinous act of violence.”
Patel said there were no changes to the schedule of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s upcoming trip to Egypt, Israel and the West Bank.
The European Union, France and Britain also condemned the shooting.
“I am appalled by the reports of the terrible attack in Neve Yaakov this evening. Attacking worshipers at a synagogue in Erev Shabat was a particularly gruesome act of terror. The UK stands with Israel,” Neil Wigan, the British ambassador to Israel, wrote on Twitter.
The EU ambassador to Israel, Dimiter Tzantchev, also condemned “senseless violence”, saying in his tweet, “Terrorism is never the answer.”
And the French embassy in Israel tweeted that the incident was “all the more despicable when it was carried out on the international day of remembrance of the Holocaust.”
His spokesman said United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned Friday’s deadly attack.
“What is particularly abhorrent is that the attack took place at a place of worship, and on the very day we celebrate International Holocaust Remembrance Day,” he said.
Guterres also expressed concern “about the current escalation of violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory”, urging all to “exercise restraint”.
