West Bank: 7 Israelis killed, three injured in alleged Palestinian gunman attack
World
Before being shot and killed by police, shooter started firing, striking number of individuals
JERUSALEM (Dunya News) - A day after the worst Israeli raid in the West Bank in years, a Palestinian gunman attacked a synagogue outside of Jerusalem on Friday, killing seven people and injuring three more. This increased concerns of a bloody domino effect.
Before being shot and killed by police, the shooter is claimed to have arrived at the scene at 8.15 p.m. and started firing, striking a number of individuals. TV footage showed numerous casualties being treated by rescue personnel while they were laying in the road outside the synagogue.
After months of skirmishes in the West Bank that culminated in a raid in Jenin on Thursday that left at least nine Palestinians dead, the attack, which police labelled as a "terrorist event," highlighted concerns of a rise in violence.
According to a statement from the police, the shooter was a 21-year-old East Jerusalem-based Palestinian who appears to have operated alone in carrying out the attack in a region that Israel annexed to Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East conflict.
It stated that he attempted to leave in a car but was shot dead by police after being chased.
The action was lauded as "a response to the crime performed by the occupation in Jenin and a natural response to the occupation s criminal deeds," according to a spokesman for the Islamist movement Hamas. Islamic Jihad, a less well-known extremist organisation, also applauded the attack without taking responsibility.
