Two Israeli police killed at holy site by gunmen

JERUSALEM — Arab assailants struck at ground zero of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, opening fire from inside a major Jerusalem shrine and killing two Israeli police officers before being shot dead.

The rare attack from within the sacred site, revered by both Muslims and Jews, raised new concerns about an escalation of violence. The three attackers were Arab citizens of Israel, also a rarity in a rash of Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers that erupted about two years ago, in part over tensions at the holy site.

Jerusalem police commissioner Yoram Halevy said the attack on Friday was well planned: The assailants had obtained automatic weapons and stayed at the holy compound the night before. He said they marked their targets in advance and after shooting them ran back inside the compound. “The entire incident began and ended” at the holy compound, he told Channel 10 TV.

After the violence, Israel closed the site — known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount — for further sweeps to make sure there were no more weapons there.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acted quickly to allay Muslim fears, saying that the status quo at the Muslimadministered site “will be preserved.”

Jews revere the site, where the two Jewish temples stood in biblical times, as the Temple Mount. It is the holiest site in Judaism and the nearby Western Wall, a remnant of one of the temples, is the holiest place where Jews can pray.

Muslims regard the same hilltop compound as the Noble Sanctuary. Home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock, it is Islam’s third-holiest site after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.