Late on January 27, a Palestinian gunman killed seven people near a synagogue in the East Jerusalem Neve Yaakov neighborhood before being fatally shot, in what appears to be a response to a deadly Israeli military operation in the West Bank that took place day earlier.
The Israeli police said that the gunmen arrived by car to the neighborhood and opened fire at people outside the synagogue and other passersby. He then fled the scene by car toward the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Hanina where he encountered officers who were called to the scene. There, the gunman was shot dead after he exited the car and opened fire on the officers while trying to escape on foot. A handgun used in the attack was seized.
Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service confirmed that seven people were dead, five of them men and two women, while hospitals received three wounded, one in critical condition.
The Shin Bet security agency identified the attacker as Alqam Khayri, 21, a resident of East Jerusalem with no prior offenses.
Speaking after visiting the scene, newly-appointed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called the attack “one of the most severe we have known in years.”
“Our hearts are with the families. I commend the police officers who took action so quickly,” Netanyahu said. “We must act with determination and composure. I call on people not to take the law into their own hands.”
He said the cabinet would convene on Saturday, adding, “We have decided on several immediate steps that will begin tonight.”
Hazem Qassem, a spokesperson for Hamas, the Palestinian faction that controls the Gaza Strip, told the Reuters news agency that the attack was “a response to the crime conducted by the occupation in Jenin and a natural response to the occupation’s criminal actions.”
Qassam did not claim responsibility for the shooting. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) also praised but did not take responsibility.
Ten Palestinians, including an elderly woman, were killed and many others were wounded in the Jenin operation. Israel said that the target was a cell of the PIJ.
The East Jerusalem attack was not the first response to the Israeli operation. Late on January 26, Palestinian factions fired two salvos of rockets from the Gaza Strip at a nearby Israeli settlement, provoking Israeli retaliationary strikes.
The shooting was the deadliest Palestinian attack since 2008, when a gunman from East Jerusalem killed eight Israeli students at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva. Tel Aviv will likely respond by expanding its operations in Palestinian areas. 42 people have been already arrested over alleged links to the attack.
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