Seven die in Israel attack

APalestinian gunman has opened fire outside an east Jerusalem synagogue, killing seven people and wounding three others before police shot and killed him, officials said.

The attack, which took place as worshippers were celebrating the Jewish sabbath, came a day after an Israeli military raid killed nine people in the West Bank.

The burst of violence has posed an early challenge for Israel’s new government, which is dominated by ultra-nationalists who have pushed for a hard line against Palestinian violence.

Israeli police said the shootings occurred in Neve Yaakov, a religious neighbourhood with a large ultra-Orthodox population, and that the gunman fled in a car after opening fire.

Police said they chased him and killed him after an exchange of fire.

Officers identified the attacker as a 21-year-old east Jerusalem resident who apparently acted alone.

Jerusalem police chief Doron Turjeman promised an “aggressive and significant” effort to track down anyone who had helped him.

Israel’s Mada rescue service said the dead included a 70-year-old woman.

It was the deadliest attack on Israelis since a 2008 shooting killed eight people in a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem, according to Israel’s foreign ministry.

Given the location and timing, it threatened to trigger a tough response from Israel.

Palestinians had earlier marched in anger as they buried the last of the people killed by Israeli fire a day earlier, but the likelihood of a major conflagration had initially appeared to ebb after the deadliest Israeli raid in two decades.

Scuffles between Israeli forces and Palestinian protesters erupted after the funeral for a 22-year-old Palestinian north of Jerusalem and elsewhere in the occupied West Bank, but calm prevailed in the contested capital and in the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Thursday’s raid in the Jenin refugee camp descended into a gun battle that killed at least nine Palestinians, while clashes elsewhere left a 10th dead.

Gaza militants then fired rockets and Israel carried out air strikes overnight, but the exchange was limited.

TENSIONS: Palestinians in Gaza City take to the streets following the synagogue attack.