“At around 09:00 local time, an armed terrorist opened fire in the Old City of Jerusalem. Two civilians were seriously wounded and two policemen were slightly wounded,” police said before announcing the death of one of them.
An AFP journalist present at the scene heard bursts of gunfire and screams.
Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem, where the victims were transferred, reported that a 30-year-old died from the injuries.
Immediately after the attack, numerous policemen were deployed in the Old City, where the body of the attacker lay for a long time on the ground.
The Israeli Minister of Public Security, Omer Bar-Lev, declared on television that the assailant was a Palestinian, “a member of Hamas” and that he lived in the Shuafat neighborhood of East Jerusalem.
“He was a member of Hamas, of the political branch, not of the armed branch. From the images we have, it appears that he was wearing a large galabeya (traditional costume) or that he had disguised himself as an Orthodox Jew, “to hide his weapon, Bar-Lev said on Israel’s Kan channel.
“His wife left (the country) three days ago and his son is also abroad (…). It seems that the attack was premeditated,” he added.
In a statement, Hamas leadership confirmed that the attacker, Fadu Abu Shukhaydam, was a member of the organization. However, the Islamist movement did not claim responsibility for the attack, which took place exactly six months after the end of the last war between Hamas and Israel.
“Our martyr in Jerusalem spent his life preaching jihad, this heroic operation is a warning to our enemy and his government to stop occupying our land,” Hamas said in a statement from the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian enclave under its control. .
Following the attack, the Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, asked to “reinforce” the security system in Jerusalem and called on the population and the police to be “vigilant” in eve of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, which is celebrated from November 28.
Last Wednesday, a 16-year-old Palestinian wounded two members of the Israeli security forces with a knife in the Old City.
The attacker was killed by police, leading to clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces in the Issawiya neighborhood of East Jerusalem, where the young Palestinian was from.
Since October 2015, Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank and Israel have been the scene of anti-Israel attacks, most often by isolated Palestinian youth. This type of violence has decreased in intensity, but persists sporadically.
Some 200,000 Israelis and some 300,000 Palestinians live in East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel since 1967.
Source From: Ambito
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