On Friday, a Palestinian gunman opened fire outside an east Jerusalem synagogue, killing seven people in one of the worst attacks on Israelis in recent memory that posed a threat of escalating unrest.
One day prior to the killing, there had been a significant escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that included an army operation in the occupied West Bank that claimed nine lives, rocket fire from Gaza, and retaliatory Israeli attacks.
The shooting in the Neve Yaakov neighborhood was “one of the deadliest attacks we have encountered in recent years,” according to Israel’s police head Kobi Shabtai. On top of that, it coincided with Holocaust Memorial Day.
According to the police, “at about 8:15 pm (1815 GMT), a terrorist entered a synagogue on Jerusalem’s Neve Yaakov Boulevard and started firing at a number of persons in the area.”
“As a result of the terror attack, seven civilians were pronounced dead and three additional civilians were injured,” police said.
They claimed that after driving away from the site, the shooter was swiftly apprehended by police, who engaged him in a “exchange of fire,” and he was dead.
Police have determined that the shooter is a Palestinian who lives in east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied during the 1967 Six-Day War.
A month after the installation of a new administration under the leadership of seasoned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, violence has escalated.
