A man opened fire near a synagogue in the Naave Yaacov neighborhood, east of Jerusalem, Friday evening, January 27. The assailant was neutralized.
Source AFP
© AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP
Published on
– Modified
Subscriber-only audio playback
Un shooting Friday, January 27 in a neighborhood of East Jerusalem populated by Jewish settlers left at least seven dead and ten injured, an Israeli police spokesman told Agence France-Presse. “Seven people were killed,” the spokesman told AFP, without specifying whether this report related only to the victims or whether it included the armed man, “neutralized” by the police after opening fire. around 8:30 p.m. (7:30 p.m. Paris time) in Neve Yaacov, a Jewish settlement neighborhood in East Jerusalem, part of the Holy City annexed by Israel.
“It’s absolutely appalling,” State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters. “We condemn this apparent terrorist attack in the strongest terms,” he added. “We stand in solidarity with the Israeli people,” said the official, according to whom Washington is in “close contact” with the Israeli authorities.
The spokesman specified that there was no change in the program of the chief of the American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, who must go from Sunday to Egypt then Monday and Tuesday in Jerusalem and Ramallah. He will discuss “measures to be taken for a de-escalation of tensions”, he added. Seven people were killed Friday by a gunman who opened fire near a synagogue in East Jerusalem during the beginning of Shabbat prayers before being himself shot, the latest episode in a new bout of deadly violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres “strongly condemns” the attack on a synagogue in East Jerusalem, “particularly despicable” on this Holocaust commemoration day, his spokesman said in a statement. “It is particularly despicable that this attack occurred on a place of worship, and on the day of commemoration of the international day of Remembrance of the Holocaust”, declared Stéphane Dujarric. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned an “appalling terrorist attack”. “This attack against civilians, at the time of prayer, and on the day of international commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust, is particularly despicable”, affirms the Quai d’Orsay.
READ ALSO“The weapon of the Muslim Brotherhood is trickery”
New outbreak of violence between Israel and Palestine
It is “one of the worst attacks in recent years” against Israelis, police chief Kobi Shabtai told Israeli television. Police say the shooter, a 21-year-old Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem, was shot dead by officers after he fled in a car. The attack, which occurs in a context of new violence between Israelis and Palestinians for 36 hours, was immediately condemned by Washington.
The Magen David Adom (MDA), the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, said it had identified a total of ten victims hit by bullets, including a 70-year-old man and a 14-year-old boy.
Israeli Minister of Internal Security Itamar Ben Gvir, a figure of the far right, went to the scene of the attack, where AFP journalists could see three corpses lying in the street. “I heard a lot of bullets,” Matanel Almalem, an 18-year-old student living next to the synagogue, told AFP.
The shooting comes the day after the death of nine Palestinians in a raid by the Israeli armed forces in the camp of Jenin, a city in the north of the occupied West Bank. The raid, which also left dozens injured, targeted the Islamic Jihad group which was planning an attack in Israel, according to Israeli sources. A tenth Palestinian was killed Thursday by Israeli fire in Al-Ram, near Ramallah, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
READ ALSOGérard Araud – The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a problem without a solution?
Paris calls not to “fuel the escalation”
The United Nations has not recorded such a high toll in a single Israeli operation in the West Bank since it began counting the victims of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2005. In retaliation, rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip, under the control of the Hamas movement.
Israel responded immediately with strikes against the Palestinian micro-territory. No casualties were recorded in this pass of arms. In response to the Israeli raid in Jenin, the Palestinian Authority decided to end security cooperation with Israel, a first since 2020. France urged Israel and the Palestinians “to refrain from fueling the escalation” and the United States said it was “deeply concerned about the escalation of violence”. For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Thursday that his country was “not looking for escalation” but was preparing “for all scenarios”.