Jerusalem/Gaza: A gunman killed at least seven people and wounded 10 others in a synagogue on the outskirts of Jerusalem in an attack that heightened fears of a spiral in violence, a day after the deadliest Israeli raid in the West Bank in years.
Police said the gunman arrived at around 8.15pm on Friday (Saturday AEDT) and opened fire, hitting a number of people before he was killed by police. TV footage showed several victims lying on the road outside the synagogue being tended to by emergency workers.
The attack, which police described as a “terrorist incident”, underlined fears of an escalation in violence after months of clashes in the West Bank culminated in a raid on Thursday that killed at least nine Palestinians.
There was no initial claim of responsibility for the synagogue attack, which took place as worshippers attended Sabbath services on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, but a spokesman for the Islamist movement Hamas said the incidents were connected.
“This operation is a response to the crime conducted by the occupation in Jenin and a natural response to the occupation criminal actions,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said. The smaller militant group Islamic Jihad also praised the attack without claiming responsibility.
Israeli media said the gunman was a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem but there was no official confirmation.
Read the article by James Mackenzie and Nidal al-Mughrabi in The Age.