Two injured in another shooting in Jerusalem
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 a serious but not critical condition. The teenage attacker was shot and injured by two passersby, according to a police statement.
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.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday announced a series of punitive steps against the Palestinians in response to the shootings.
The steps, announced late Saturday, include new moves to “strengthen” Jewish settlements, his office said. The Security Cabinet It also plans to cancel social security and health benefits for the families of attackers, make it easier for Israelis to obtain weapons and step up efforts to collect illegal weapons.
The combination of several overlapping dynamics — a new hard-right Israeli government; rising anger and militancy from a new generation of Palestinians; an escalating Israeli military campaign in Palestinian areas; and the Palestinian leadership’s decision this past week to sever security coordination with Israeli counterparts — threatens to accelerate a cycle of violence.
The attack Saturday morning occurred in a mainly Palestinian district of East Jerusalem, a few hundred yards south of some of the holiest sites in the Old City.
Elsewhere in East Jerusalem on Saturday, police said they had arrested 42 people connected to the Palestinian assailant in the attack Friday outside a synagogue at an Israeli settlement.
Tensions have escalated throughout January, with more than 30 Palestinians killed this month, mostly during Israeli operations to arrest Palestinian militants.