Israeli army reinforces in West Bank after synagogue shooting By Reuters

By Maayan Lubell

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -The Israeli navy was sending extra troops into the occupied West Financial institution, a day after a Palestinian gunman shot useless seven folks on the outskirts of Jerusalem and one other taking pictures assault within the metropolis on Saturday wounded two folks.

The assaults happened in direction of the top of a month of rising confrontation and observe an Israeli raid within the West Financial institution that killed 9 Palestinians, together with seven gunmen, and cross-border fireplace between Israel and Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new cupboard, which incorporates hardline nationalist events which have referred to as for stronger motion towards Palestinians and oppose Palestinian statehood, was as a consequence of meet in a while Saturday.

Friday’s assault outdoors a synagogue was the deadliest within the metropolis space since 2008. The gunman, Khaire Alkam, was a 21-year-old Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem, in response to police.

Alkam’s father instructed Reuters his son had no hyperlinks to any Palestinian militant teams. He struck in an space that Israel annexed to Jerusalem after the 1967 warfare, a transfer not recognised internationally.

Police stated he had tried to flee by automotive however was chased by officers and shot useless. Forty-two suspects, together with members of the gunman’s household, had been arrested, police stated.

On Saturday, police stated a 13-year-old boy from East Jerusalem opened fireplace at a gaggle of passers-by, wounding two folks, earlier than he was shot and wounded by one in every of them.

That incident happened round Silwan, a Palestinian neighbourhood in East Jerusalem that lies under the Previous Metropolis partitions. 

The assaults underlined the potential for an escalation in violence after months of clashes within the West Financial institution culminating in a raid in Jenin on Thursday that killed a minimum of 9 Palestinians, the deadliest such raid in years.

“Following an IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) situational evaluation, it was determined to strengthen the Judea and Samaria (West Financial institution) Division with an extra battalion,” the navy stated.

SCENE AT SYNAGOGUE

Police stated the gunman within the Friday assault arrived at 8:15 p.m. and opened fireplace with a handgun, hitting a variety of folks earlier than he was killed by police.

Shimon Israel, 56, who lives close by, stated his household have been beginning their Sabbath dinner once they heard taking pictures and screaming. He opened the window and noticed his neighbour working on the road to get the police.

“I instructed him ‘Eli, do not go there. Eli do not go.’ He received married solely a 12 months in the past. A superb neighbour, like a brother. He ran. I noticed him fall there,” Israel instructed Reuters.

“Natali, his spouse, ran after him. She noticed somebody right here and was making an attempt to resuscitate him. The terrorist got here and shot her from behind and received her too,” he stated.

The gunman’s father, Moussa Alkam, stated he didn’t know what motivated his son, whom he stated was an peculiar particular person with no militant ties.

“He’s neither the primary nor the final younger man to get martyred and what he did is a supply of pleasure,” he stated.

Alkam was a relative of a 17-year-old Palestinian who was shot useless on Wednesday in clashes with Israeli forces in a Jerusalem refugee camp, his household stated. However his father stated he didn’t know whether or not his son acted out of revenge.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made no point out of the shootings in an announcement printed by the official Palestinian company WAFA, and blamed Israel for the escalation in violence.

Abbas’s Palestinian Authority, which has restricted governing powers within the West Financial institution, suspended safety cooperation preparations with Israel after the lethal Jenin raid.

CONDEMNATION

Friday’s taking pictures, on Worldwide Holocaust Remembrance Day, was condemned by the White Home and U.N. Secretary Basic Antonio Guterres, who urged “utmost restraint”. It got here days earlier than a deliberate go to by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Israel and the West Financial institution.

A Ukrainian lady was among the many useless, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated in Kyiv.

Jordan and Egypt, Arab nations which have signed peace treaties with Israel, condemned the taking pictures as did the United Arab Emirates, one in every of a number of Arab states that normalised relations with Israel simply over two years in the past.

Lebanon’s Iran-backed group Hezbollah praised the assault and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas hailed it as a response to Thursday’s Jenin raid. The smaller militant group Islamic Jihad additionally praised the assault.

Shortly after Friday’s taking pictures, far-right Nationwide Safety Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, visited the positioning, the place he was greeted with a combination of cheers and anger. “The federal government has to reply, God prepared that is what is going to occur,” he stated.

Netanyahu, whose nationalist-religious cupboard seeks to increase settlements within the West Financial institution, urged folks to not take the legislation into their very own fingers however stated measures had been determined.

Earlier on Friday, militants in Gaza fired rockets at Israel, inflicting no casualties however drawing Israeli air strikes within the blockaded coastal strip managed by Hamas.

The Palestinian well being ministry stated on Friday three Palestinians have been taken to hospital after being shot by an Israeli settler within the northern West Financial institution.

Violence within the West Financial institution surged after a spate of deadly assaults in Israel final 12 months, beneath the earlier Israeli authorities. A minimum of 30 Palestinians – militants and civilians – have been killed there because the begin of 2023.