CNN
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Israeli police say at least seven people were killed and three were wounded in a shooting near a synagogue in Jerusalem on Friday amid high tensions in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Friday’s shooter was also later killed by police forces, according to police, in what police chief Yaakov Shabtai described as “one of the worst terrorist attacks in recent years.”
“As a result of the shooting attack, the death of 7 civilians was determined and 3 others were injured with additional degrees of injury,” police said.
Five of the shooting victims were pronounced dead at the scene, Israel’s emergency rescue service Magen David Adom (MDA) said: four men and a woman. Five people were transported to hospitals, where another man and woman were pronounced dead.
Among the injured is a 15-year-old boy, the MDA said.
The attack took place around 20:15 local time, near a synagogue on Neve Yaakov Street, according to a police statement.
Shabtai said the gunman “started shooting at anyone who was in his way. He got into his car and went on a killing spree with a pistol at a distance.” He then fled the scene in a vehicle and was killed after a shootout with police forces, police said.
Police identified the gunman as a 21-year-old resident of East Jerusalem, saying in a statement that he appeared to have acted alone. East Jerusalem is a predominantly Palestinian area of the city, which was conquered by Israel in 1967.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged people against revenge attacks on Friday night. “I call on the people not to take the law into their own hands. For this purpose we have army, police and security forces. They act and will act according to the cabinet instructions,” he said.
The incident comes one day after the deadliest day for Palestinians in the West Bank in more than a year, according to CNN records.
On Thursday, Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians and wounded several others in the West Bank city of Jenin, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, prompting the Palestinian Authority to end security coordination with Israel. A tenth Palestinian was killed that day in what Israeli Police called a “violent riot” near Jerusalem.
Overnight, Friday morning local time, Israel launched airstrikes on the Gaza Strip after rockets were fired at Israel.
Israel’s controversial National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir visited the scene of the attack on Friday evening, telling people who chanted angrily that “it can’t go on like this.”
“I can tell you, [the people chanting] you are right The burden is on us. It can’t go on like this,” said Ben Gvir, who also leads the far-right Jewish Power party.
Some people on the scene chanted support for Ben Gvir, saying “You are our voice, we support you.”
Hadas Gold and a CNN team, who were also at the scene of Friday night’s shooting, heard what sounded like celebratory gunfire and car horns blaring from the nearby predominantly Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Hanina.
The White House condemned the “heinous terrorist attack” at a synagogue in Jerusalem on Friday and said the US government extended its “full support” to Israel, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
The US State Department also condemned the “alleged terrorist attack” in Jerusalem “in the strongest terms”.
“This is absolutely appalling,” State Department Deputy Spokesman Vedant Patel said. “Our thoughts, prayers and condolences go out to those killed and injured in this heinous act of violence.”
Patel said no change to the schedule of Foreign Secretary Antony Blinken’s upcoming trip to Egypt, Israel and the West Bank is expected.
The European Union, France and the United Kingdom also condemned the shooting.
“I am appalled by reports of the horrific attack in Neve Yaakov tonight. Attacking worshipers at a synagogue on Erev Shabat is particularly horrific terrorism. Britain stands with Israel,” Neil Wigan, the British ambassador to Israel wrote on Twitter.
The EU’s ambassador to Israel, Dimiter Tzantchev, also condemned the “senseless violence,” saying in his tweet, “Terror is never the answer.”
And the French embassy in Israel tweeted that the incident was “all the more despicable because it was carried out on this day of international remembrance of the Holocaust.”
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned Friday’s deadly attack, his spokesman said.
“It is particularly abhorrent that the attack took place in a place of worship, and on the same day we celebrated International Holocaust Remembrance Day,” he said.
Guterres also expressed concern “about the current escalation of violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory,” urging everyone to “exercise maximum restraint.”
