Palestinian kills 3 Israelis near Jerusalem
JERUSALEM - A Palestinian gunman killed three Israeli security officers Tuesday, and critically wounded a fourth, at the entrance to a settlement outside Jerusalem, in one of the deadliest attacks in a two-year spate of violence.
The assailant, identified by police as Nimer Mahmoud Ahmad Jamal, a 37year-old father of four, was shot dead by Israeli security forces. He had a permit to work in Israel and staged the attack by hiding among fellow Palestinian day laborers who were being checked by security forces.
“This was a man who we talked with, whom my children gave drinks and food,” said Michal Avidor, a resident of Har Adar, the upscale Israeli West Bank settlement where the incident took place.
The attack came as Israeli security forces were on high alert due to the Jewish holidays. In the past, special observances such as Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur have marked a time of frequent terror attacks.
The shooting also shattered a period of relative calm after a surge in violence known as the Palestinian “lone wolf” intifada, during which mostly politically unaffiliated Palestinians have used knives, vehicles and other weapons to attack Israeli soldiers and civilians.
Since September 2015, 48 Israelis, including two visiting Americans and a British tourist, have been killed by Palestinians. Israeli forces have killed over 255 Palestinians, most of whom Israel identified as attackers or as individuals killed in clashes against Israeli security forces.
In the latest assault, on July 21, a young Palestinian man jumped the fence into the West Bank settlement of Halamish and fatally stabbed three Israelis gathering for a Friday night meal.
He had earlier published multiple social media posts about dying a martyr’s death “in the name of al-Aqsa,” the contested Jerusalem holy site.
Israel has struggled to rein in the violence since it first erupted two years ago after false rumors circulated on social media that Israel was planning to take control of the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem.