(Jerusalem) One person was killed and three others injured on Sunday morning in a gun attack by a Palestinian member of Hamas in the Old City of Jerusalem, Israeli authorities said.
“At around 9 am local time, an armed terrorist opened fire in the old city of Jerusalem. Two civilians were seriously injured and two police officers slightly injured, ”police said. An AFP journalist on the spot heard bursts of gunfire and screams.
In the aftermath, Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, where the wounded were taken, said a 30-year-old died of his injuries.
Immediately after this attack, rare in the Old City of Jerusalem, many police officers were deployed. The assailant’s body remained on the ground for a long time before the police confirmed his death.
PHOTO MENAHEM KAHANA, FRANCE-PRESS AGENCY
Israeli Minister of Public Security Omer Bar-Lev said on television that the assailant was a Palestinian, “member of Hamas,” living in the Shuafat neighborhood in East Jerusalem.
“He was a member of Hamas, of the political wing, not of the armed wing. According to the images we have, it appears that he was wearing a large galabeya [robe traditionnelle] or that he had disguised himself as an Orthodox Jew, ”in order to conceal his weapon, Bar-Lev told Israeli channel Kan.
“His wife left [le pays] three days ago and her son is also abroad […]. It seems that this attack is premeditated, ”he added.
In a statement, the Hamas leadership confirmed that the assailant, presented as Fadu Abu Shukhaydam, was indeed a member of the organization, without however directly claiming the attack, which comes six months to the day after the end of the attack. 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 lands, ”Hamas said in a statement from the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian enclave under its control.
Call for vigilance
After this attack, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called for “strengthening” the security system in Jerusalem and called on the population and the police to be “vigilant” in the run-up to the Jewish holidays of Hanukkah, celebrated in from November 28.
On Wednesday, a 16-year-old Palestinian carried out a knife attack in the Old City against Israeli forces leaving two injured before being shot dead by police.
Clashes erupted in the evening between Palestinian residents and Israeli security forces in the Issawiya neighborhood in East Jerusalem, where the young assailant is from, an AFP photographer noted. These tensions have continued in recent days, according to police and witnesses.
Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank and Israel have been the scene from October 2015 and for months of anti-Israel attacks, most often committed by young isolated Palestinians. This violence has since diminished in intensity, but persists sporadically.
Some 200,000 Israelis live in East Jerusalem, where 300,000 Palestinians also reside. Israeli colonization, illegal under international law, has continued under all Israeli governments since 1967.