2 Israelis injured hours after a mass shooting
JERUSALEM — Violence continued Saturday in Jerusalem as an attacker, identified by police as a 13-year-old boy, shot and injured two Israelis near a settlement in east Jerusalem the morning after a Palestinian assailant killed seven people outside a synagogue elsewhere in the city.
Both victims on Saturday were taken to a hospital and were described by medics as being in serious but not critical condition. The teenage assailant was shot and hurt by two passersby, police said.
The attack underscored the fragility of the situation in Israel and the occupied territories, which has left at least 20 Israelis and Palestinians dead in less than a week and has prompted many on either side of the conflict to fear a possible greater conflagration.
The combination of overlapping dynamics — a new hard-right Israeli government that has promised to take a stronger stance against Palestinians, rising anger and militancy from a new generation of Palestinians, an escalating Israeli military campaign in Palestinian areas and the Palestinian leadership’s decision last week to sever security coordination with Israeli counterparts — threatens to accelerate a cycle of violence and undermine efforts to calm tensions.
On Saturday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government would respond calmly to the escalation in violence and warned civilians against vigilantism.
But Netanyahu also promised strong actions against the perpetrators of the recent attacks and their families, pledging to seal and demolish their homes and to cancel their national insurance payouts. He also said the government would make it easier and faster for Israelis to attain gun licenses, allowing more civilians to carry weapons.
Also Saturday, the Palestinian Authority, the semi-autonomous body that administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, released a statement blaming the Israeli government for the tensions and promising to uphold a decision it made this week to halt coordination with Israeli security officials. And Hamas, the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, warned that the region was “heading for an unprecedented escalation.”
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar BenGvir, pushed for even tougher measures than Netanyahu — including capital punishment, currently permitted only in very rare circumstances — and backed Netanyahu’s plans for loosening gun license laws.
“I want weapons on the streets,” Ben- Gvir said. “When civilians have weapons, they can defend themselves.”
An Israeli official also said the Cabinet would discuss deporting assailants and their families.
The attack Saturday morning occurred in Silwan, a mainly Palestinian district of east Jerusalem, a few hundred yards south of some of the holiest sites in the Old City.
After an invasion by its Arab neighbors in 1967, the area was captured by Israel and later annexed. Tensions in the neighborhood, which is still considered occupied territory by much of the world, have surged in recent decades since Israeli settlers began to move there in greater numbers and seek the eviction of Palestinian residents.
The 13-year-old attacker was filmed firing on a group of Jewish Israelis as they walked through the area, hitting a father and his adult son. Palestinian media reported that the assailant also lived in Silwan and that his relatives were subsequently arrested by police.
The attack came hours before mourners were set to hold funerals for the seven people killed Friday night outside a synagogue. Among them was a 14year-old boy, Asher Natan. Another victim was a Ukrainian citizen, according to a condolence message posted online by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Two others, named by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, were Eli and Natalie Mizrahi, a husband and wife.
Police said they arrested 42 people Saturday connected to the Palestinian assailant in the attack Friday night. An Israeli official identified him as a 21-year-old Palestinian from East Jerusalem.