From BZ/dpa
According to the latest police reports, seven people were shot dead in a terrorist attack on visitors to a synagogue in an Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem.
Several others were injured, the police said on Twitter on Friday evening. A police spokeswoman had previously given the number of dead as eight.
The officials shot the assassin at the scene and “neutralized” him, it said. It was initially unclear whether the attacker was killed. The police initially did not confirm such reports on request.
The attacker went to a synagogue in the Israeli settlement of Neve Yaakov around 8:30 p.m. (local time) and opened fire there, the police said in the tweet. The Jerusalem Post reported that the assassin shot at people as they exited the synagogue.
According to the Israeli emergency medical service Magen David Adom, several of the injured were taken to a nearby hospital. Several are in critical condition.
Israeli security forces block the road around the site of the attack Photo: AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP
The US government called the act “absolutely appalling”. “We condemn in the strongest terms this apparently terrorist attack,” US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said in Washington. “Our thoughts, prayers and condolences go out to those killed and injured in this despicable act of violence.”
Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank responded to the terrorist attack with celebrations. Eyewitnesses reported militants shooting up in the air and pouring into the streets on Friday night.
A spokesman for the radical Islamist Hamas, which rules in the Gaza Strip, said the attack was “retaliation for the Israeli army’s attack on the Jenin refugee camp”.
The day before, there had been violent clashes in several places in the West Bank. The trigger was a raid in which Israeli soldiers engaged in a firefight with militant Palestinians in Jenin. Nine Palestinians were killed, including several members of the Palestinian militant organization Islamic Jihad.
The security situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories has deteriorated significantly in recent days.
Today more than 600,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The Palestinians claim the territories for an independent state of Palestine with the Arab-influenced eastern part of Jerusalem as the capital.