Palestinian gunmen kill 2 Israeli police
Rare attack at Temple Mount
JERUSALEM• Three Palestinian assailants opened fire on Israeli police from inside a major Jerusalem holy site on Friday, gravely wounding two officers before being shot dead, police said. The officers later died.
The rare attack from within the contested site, revered by both Muslims and Jews, raised new concerns about an escalation of violence. Police identified the attackers as Arab citizens of Israel.
The sacred compound sits at the fault line of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and has triggered major confrontations in the past.
After the attack, Israel closed the site — known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount — for further weapons sweeps. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it will reopen gradually, after security evaluations on Sunday.
Jordan, a custodian of the sacred compound, called for its immediate reopening.
The closure meant a cancellation of noon prayers, which typically draw tens of thousands of Muslims from Israel and the Israeli- occupied West Bank to the compound on Fridays.
Netanyahu quickly tried to allay Muslim fears, saying that the status quo at the Muslim- administered site “will be preserved.”
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said that “we cannot allow for agents of murder who desecrate the name of God, to drag us into a bloody war.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made a rare phone call to Netanyahu, highlighting the concern about a possible escalation. The leaders have almost no direct contact.
Abbas condemned the attack and said he rejects “any violence from any party, particularly at holy sites,” said the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.
The sacred compound, popular with tourists, is the holiest site in Judaism and the third- holiest in Islam, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.
Israeli police chief Roni Alsheikh said the weapons used in the attack had been brought into the holy compound. The attackers opened fire on the Israeli officers from inside the site, he said.
In response, “a police force charged at the terrorists, killed two and wounded the third,” he said. The wounded assailant used a knife to attack an officer checking him for explosives and was killed, the police chief said.
A relative said the three assailants were from the Jabareen clan — two 19-yearolds and a 29-year-old. They were devout Muslims and frequently visited the shrine, travelling to Jerusalem by bus from their homes in northern Israel, the relative said.
The two slain policemen were members of Israel’s Druze community, followers of a secretive off-shoot of Islam. Unlike the majority of their fellow Arabs in Israel, many Druze serve in the Israeli security forces.