Two individuals may have been shot on Saturday in Jerusalem, as Israel’s military announced it was bolstering its soldiers in the occupied West Bank following a Palestinian gunman’s killing of seven people close to a synagogue on the outskirts of the city.
The shooting on Friday night occurred the day after the worst Israeli raid in the West Bank in recent memory and cross-border fire between Israel and Gaza that increased concerns of a bloody domino effect.
Two persons looked to have been injured in what appeared to be another gunfire attack on Saturday, according to the Israeli ambulance service.
A 21-year-old Palestinian citizen of East Jerusalem who appeared to have acted alone in carrying out the attack in a region that Israel annexed to Jerusalem after the 1967 Middle East conflict, according to Israeli police, was the shooter in Friday’s incident.
It stated that he attempted to flee in a car but was shot dead by police after being chased. Police reported that 42 suspects, including family members of the gunman, had been detained and that they were on the highest alert.
After months of fighting in the West Bank, which culminated in a raid in Jenin on Thursday that left at least nine Palestinians dead, the incident highlighted concerns about a rise in violence.
The military stated that the decision to add a second battalion to the Judea and Samaria (West Bank) Division was made after an IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) tactical assessment.
Since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assumed office last month as the head of a coalition that includes hardline nationalist parties, violence has broken out in a serious way for the first time.
Netanyahu asked people not to impose their own laws after consulting with security officials, but he also stated that steps had been chosen and the cabinet would convene on Saturday.
Far-right Itamar Ben-Gvir, the minister of national security, arrived at the attack site to a mixture of applause and rage. He informed the multitude of people waiting, “Government has to respond, and God willing, this is what will happen.”
CONDEMNATION
The White House and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced Friday’s shooting, which happened on International Holocaust Remembrance Day and on the Jewish Sabbath. Guterres also urged “utmost moderation” in response to the current uptick in violence. It happened a few days before American Secretary of State Antony Blinken was scheduled to travel to Israel and the West Bank.
Jordan and Egypt, two Arab nations that have peace treaties with Israel, as well as the United Arab Emirates, one of many Arab nations that normalized relations with Israel just over two years ago, all denounced the attack.
A spokesman for the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas welcomed the attack as “a retaliation to the crime performed by the occupation in Jenin and a natural response to the occupation’s criminal activities.” Hezbollah, an organization supported by Iran in Lebanon, applauded the strike.
Islamic Jihad, a less well-known militant organization, also applauded the attack without taking responsibility.
The Palestinian health ministry reported on Friday that three Palestinians were transported to the hospital after being shot by an Israeli settler in an incident close to the northern West Bank city of Nablus, illustrating the potential for further escalation.
A SYNAGOGUE SCENE
According to police, the Jerusalem shooter entered at 8:15 p.m. and immediately started firing, hitting several individuals before being shot and killed by officers. “It was terrible when we soon arrived on the scene. injured individuals laying on the pavement, “from the Israeli ambulance service, Shimon Alfasi.
synagogue: Earlier on Friday, Hamas-controlled terrorists in Gaza launched rockets at Israel. Although no one was hurt, this prompted Israeli jets to launch airstrikes against targets in the blockaded coastal territory.
Following a string of deadly incidents in Israel last year, violence in the West Bank increased.
The most recent round of unrest started during the last coalition administration and has persisted under Netanyahu’s right-wing rule, which includes organizations that support settlement growth in the West Bank.
At least 30 Palestinians had already died this year before the synagogue shooting on Friday, and the Palestinian Authority, which has limited administrative authority in the West Bank, announced it was suspending a security cooperation agreement with Israel.
