7 dead in Jerusalem synagogue killing
Gunfire outside a Jerusalem synagogue left seven worshippers dead and three injured Friday night.
The 21-year-old Palestinian gunman responsible for the slaughter was killed by police, officials said. One of his victims included a 70-year-old woman slain while observing the Jewish Sabbath on Holocaust Remembrance Day. A teenage boy required surgery.
West Bank residents lauded the slaughter, which came a day after an Israeli military raid left nine people dead in that occupied territory. Car horns and celebratory gunfire were also heard in the Gaza Strip. Further violence is feared.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem called Friday night’s shootings “a revenge and natural response” to Thursdays killings.
Tensions are running especially high in the region, where Israel’s new nationalist government finds itself at odds with Palestinian leaders.
Israeli police said the pistol-packing killer appears to have acted alone, but they are working to track down potential accomplices. No group has claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack.
Gaza militants fired rockets into southern Israel Thursday, which was met with Israeli airstrikes. No casualties were reported.
Israeli fire killed nearly 150 Palestinians in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 2022, according to the Israeli rights group B’Tselem.
Friday’s killing was the deadliest attack on Israelis since eight people were killed in a 2008 Jerusalem seminary, the country’s Foreign Ministry said.
The White House condemned “the heinous terror attack” in a statement. President Biden directed his national security team to “engage immediately with Israeli counterparts” to offer assistance for the wounded and accountability to the perpetrators of “this horrible crime to justice.”
Leaders, including Illinois congresswoman and Iraq war veteran Tammy Duckworth, decried Friday’s violence.
“As the world marks Holocaust Remembrance Day, more innocent lives were stolen in a horrific terrorist attack at a Jerusalem synagogue celebrating the Sabbath,” she tweeted. “This is yet another reminder that anti-Semitism and hate continue. It must stop.”
With News Wire Services
