A Palestinian gunman killed at least seven people, including children, during Friday night prayers at a synagogue in East Jerusalem. The attack comes amid a spike in Israeli-Palestinian violence that is among the first tests for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government.
Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The gunman entered the synagogue in the Neve Yaakov neighborhood of Jerusalem at about 8:15 p.m. local time and opened fire on worshipers gathered for Friday night prayers, according to a statement by Israeli police. He then ran back onto the street, began firing at passersby, and attempted to drive away in a car before being killed by Israeli security officers at the scene.
At least three others were injured, according to Israeli media, including several who are in critical condition.
The gunman, who has been identified by Israeli police as a 21-year-old Palestinian man from East Jerusalem with no criminal record, is believed to have acted alone. Israeli police said they were searching for the person who drove him to the site.
The shooting comes a day after Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians, including at least one civilian, during a military raid in Jenin, the West Bank city that has become a hotbed of armed Palestinian resistance. On Thursday night, militants in the Gaza Strip fired at least 13 rockets into Israel, raising new fears of a return to full-scale conflict.
Mushir al-Masri, a politician from Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza, congratulated the Jerusalem attacker, saying the shooting was “a quick response to the Jenin massacre, and is evidence of the vitality and readiness of the resistance.”
Attacks by Palestinian militants have increased over the past year, with 29 Israelis killed in 2022, according to Israel’s Foreign Affairs Ministry. The deadliest, which took place March 29, saw five people killed in a series of shootings in Bnei Brak, a city near Tel Aviv known for its links to Haredi Judaism.
Israeli synagogues have been targeted in the past by militants, including arson attacks on Israeli settlements in Lod, Bnei Brak and Ramat Gan last spring. However, mass shootings of worshipers are much more rare.
Two Israeli men were fatally stabbed by a Palestinian man in a synagogue in Tel Aviv in 2015, at the height of the so-called “knife intifada,” a wave of violence carried out by Palestinian assailants who used household knives and cars to carry out attacks. A year earlier, six people were killed in an attack on Kehilat Bnei Torah synagogue, in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem, in which the attackers used axes, knives and a gun. That was the deadliest attack in the city since 2008, when seven students were fatally shot at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva, a prominent religious school.
Last year, Israeli security forces killed 146 Palestinians in the West Bank and predominantly Palestinian East Jerusalem — more Palestinians killed than in any year since the United Nations began systematically recording fatalities in 2005, after the last major Palestinian uprising.
The killings come as Israeli security officials prepare for Ramadan in March, which will overlap with the Jewish holiday of Passover and has in recent years been accompanied by a surge in violence.
“Terrorism must not be allowed to rear its head,” tweeted Yair Lapid, head of the Israeli opposition. “We must use a hard hand against it.”
The escalation also comes ahead of next week’s visit of U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who has in recent weeks expressed concerns that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government could further escalate the conflict and risk another confrontation with Hamas in Gaza.
Netanyahu and the high-profile members of his right-wing coalition are scheduled to hold a security meeting in Jerusalem on Friday night.
“Soon we will change the policy for civilian gun owners,” said National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir at the site after being briefed by security forces. He then drove away as supporters chanted “death to terrorists” and “death to leftists,” and met with family members of the victims.
Friday’s shooting took place in a contested area of East Jerusalem, which includes territory Palestinians claim as the capital of a future state. Israel annexed the area after capturing the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967. Since then, successive Israeli governments have allowed settlement building across the West Bank and in Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem.
Neve Yaakov is a smaller enclave nestled between the much larger settlement of Pisgat Ze’ev and the Palestinian districts of Beit Hanina and Al-Ram. It is on the road between East Jerusalem and Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. According to Israeli rights group B’Tselem, more than 200,000 Israeli settlers live in East Jerusalem.
Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The gunman entered the synagogue in the Neve Yaakov neighborhood of Jerusalem at about 8:15 p.m. local time and opened fire on worshipers gathered for Friday night prayers, according to a statement by Israeli police. He then ran back onto the street, began firing at passersby, and attempted to drive away in a car before being killed by Israeli security officers at the scene.
At least three others were injured, according to Israeli media, including several who are in critical condition.
The gunman, who has been identified by Israeli police as a 21-year-old Palestinian man from East Jerusalem with no criminal record, is believed to have acted alone. Israeli police said they were searching for the person who drove him to the site.
The shooting comes a day after Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians, including at least one civilian, during a military raid in Jenin, the West Bank city that has become a hotbed of armed Palestinian resistance. On Thursday night, militants in the Gaza Strip fired at least 13 rockets into Israel, raising new fears of a return to full-scale conflict.
Mushir al-Masri, a politician from Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza, congratulated the Jerusalem attacker, saying the shooting was “a quick response to the Jenin massacre, and is evidence of the vitality and readiness of the resistance.”
Attacks by Palestinian militants have increased over the past year, with 29 Israelis killed in 2022, according to Israel’s Foreign Affairs Ministry. The deadliest, which took place March 29, saw five people killed in a series of shootings in Bnei Brak, a city near Tel Aviv known for its links to Haredi Judaism.
Israeli synagogues have been targeted in the past by militants, including arson attacks on Israeli settlements in Lod, Bnei Brak and Ramat Gan last spring. However, mass shootings of worshipers are much more rare.
Two Israeli men were fatally stabbed by a Palestinian man in a synagogue in Tel Aviv in 2015, at the height of the so-called “knife intifada,” a wave of violence carried out by Palestinian assailants who used household knives and cars to carry out attacks. A year earlier, six people were killed in an attack on Kehilat Bnei Torah synagogue, in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem, in which the attackers used axes, knives and a gun. That was the deadliest attack in the city since 2008, when seven students were fatally shot at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva, a prominent religious school.
Last year, Israeli security forces killed 146 Palestinians in the West Bank and predominantly Palestinian East Jerusalem — more Palestinians killed than in any year since the United Nations began systematically recording fatalities in 2005, after the last major Palestinian uprising.
The killings come as Israeli security officials prepare for Ramadan in March, which will overlap with the Jewish holiday of Passover and has in recent years been accompanied by a surge in violence.
“Terrorism must not be allowed to rear its head,” tweeted Yair Lapid, head of the Israeli opposition. “We must use a hard hand against it.”
The escalation also comes ahead of next week’s visit of U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who has in recent weeks expressed concerns that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government could further escalate the conflict and risk another confrontation with Hamas in Gaza.
Netanyahu and the high-profile members of his right-wing coalition are scheduled to hold a security meeting in Jerusalem on Friday night.
“Soon we will change the policy for civilian gun owners,” said National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir at the site after being briefed by security forces. He then drove away as supporters chanted “death to terrorists” and “death to leftists,” and met with family members of the victims.
Friday’s shooting took place in a contested area of East Jerusalem, which includes territory Palestinians claim as the capital of a future state. Israel annexed the area after capturing the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967. Since then, successive Israeli governments have allowed settlement building across the West Bank and in Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem.
Neve Yaakov is a smaller enclave nestled between the much larger settlement of Pisgat Ze’ev and the Palestinian districts of Beit Hanina and Al-Ram. It is on the road between East Jerusalem and Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. According to Israeli rights group B’Tselem, more than 200,000 Israeli settlers live in East Jerusalem.
