A gunman killed seven people in an east Jerusalem synagogue on Friday, Israeli police said, in a dramatic escalation of violence that followed a deadly raid in the West Bank the previous day.
The shooting in the Israeli-occupied east Jerusalem neighborhood of Neve Yaakov came despite international calls for calm after Israeli and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip traded missiles on Friday.
“Around 20:30 (1830 GMT), terrorists arrived at the synagogue on Neve Yaakov boulevard in Jerusalem and proceeded to shoot several people in the area,” police said, adding that the shooter was “neutralized”.
A police spokesman told AFP seven people had died.
Magen David Adom emergency response services reported a total of 10 gunshot victims, including a 70-year-old man and a 14-year-old boy.
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“I heard a lot of bullets,” Matanel Almalem, an 18-year-old student who lives near the synagogue, told AFP.
Israel’s Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir attended the scene shortly after, an AFP photographer reported. Police dismantled a white vehicle believed to belong to the shooter.
The United States condemned the “absolutely horrific” attack on Jerusalem.
“Our commitment to Israel’s security remains ironclad, and we are in direct contact with our Israeli partners,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.
Just hours earlier, Washington had urged a “de-escalation” of West Bank violence and Gaza rocket fire.
– Gen Raid –
Nine people were killed on Thursday in what Israel described as a “counter-terrorism” operation in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank.
It was one of the deadliest attacks by the Israeli army in the occupied West Bank since the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, of 2000 to 2005.
Israel says the Islamic Jihad operation is the target.
Islamic Jihad and Islamist Hamas, which controls Gaza, vowed to retaliate, then fired several rockets into Israeli territory.
Most of the rockets were intercepted by Israeli air defenses. The military responded with strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza.
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No injuries were reported on either side, but Gaza’s armed groups have vowed further action.
The United Nations human rights office has previously called for an end to the “endless cycle of violence” in the West Bank, saying on Twitter that it “must end”.
As Israeli forces stormed the crowded Jenin refugee camp on Thursday, gunfire rang out in the streets and smoke billowed from burning barricades.
The military said Israeli forces were fired upon during a “counterterrorism operation to capture an Islamic Jihad terror squad” and shot several enemy fighters.
The violence prompted the Palestinian Authority to announce it was cutting security coordination with Israel, a move criticized by the United States.
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The military said the attack targeted Islamic Jihad militants who are suspected of attacking Israeli soldiers and civilians and, according to Israeli Defense Minister Yoava Gallant, planning “to carry out terror attacks in Israel”.
Three Palestinians were shot dead in the fighting, while Israeli forces shot two more “away from the scene”, the army said. Israeli forces also shot a sixth suspect inside the building, and another Palestinian was hit after firing on troops, the army said.
There were no casualties among Israeli forces, the military added.
– Jerusalem ‘massacre’ –
Wisam Bakr, director of the Jenin Government Hospital, said there was a “situation of panic” in the pediatric ward, with some children exposed to tear gas inhalation.
The Israeli military told AFP “the activity was not far from the hospital, and tear gas may have entered through an open window”.
Jenin resident Umm Youssef al-Sawalmi said houses were hit during the attack. “The windows, the doors, the walls and even the refrigerator, everything has been damaged by bullets,” he told AFP.
Thursday’s deaths brought to 30 the number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank this year, including fighters and civilians, most of whom were shot by Israeli forces.
Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri vowed that Israel “will pay the price for the Jenin massacre”.
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Washington earlier Thursday announced US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel next week to Israel and the Palestinian territories, where he will push to “end the cycle of violence”.
A State Department spokesman on Friday confirmed the visit would take place.
The toll follows the deadliest year in the Palestinian territories recorded by the UN.
At least 26 Israelis and 200 Palestinians were killed in Israel and the Palestinian territories in 2022, the majority in the West Bank, according to an AFP tally from official sources.