- The man fired a shot at a restaurant near the West Bank city of Jericho on Saturday night, Israel’s army said.
- The Palestinian shooter then ran away.
- So nobody was injured.
Footage from a surveillance camera is said to show that the attacker was armed with an assault rifle, Israeli media reported. Accordingly, there were problems with his weapon, which probably prevented further shots and victims. Armed forces are currently looking for the man.
A 13-year-old had previously shot and seriously injured two men in the Silwan district of East Jerusalem. Armed passers-by shot the boy, who was then given medical attention. The two victims, father and son, were taken to a hospital.
Mostly Palestinians live in Silwan in East Jerusalem, but there are also Israeli settlers. Israel conquered the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967. A total of more than 600,000 Israeli settlers live there today. The Palestinians claim the territories for an independent state of Palestine with the Arab-influenced eastern part of Jerusalem as the capital.
Seven dead in attack on visitors to a synagogue
Already on Friday – the international Holocaust Remembrance Day – an attack on visitors to a synagogue with seven dead had caused horror. According to initial findings, the assassin in the Israeli settlement of Neve Yaakov was a 21-year-old from East Jerusalem. He was shot trying to escape. According to police, he acted alone. By Saturday, at least 42 suspects had been arrested – according to officials, they were relatives and neighbors of the assassin. It was not immediately known what they were charged with.
“We are not looking for an escalation, but we are prepared for any scenario,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday evening at a security cabinet meeting that wanted to deal with the situation after the attacks. It is still unclear whether the two attacks were related.
Netanyahu said after the attack near the prayer house: “We will act decisively and calmly.” He called on the population not to take the law into their own hands. The right-wing extremist police minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, on the other hand, called for citizens to be “better armed in order to avoid such attacks”. There is also great resistance among Israelis to the new ultra-right government and its plans. Netanyahu’s coalition is planning far-reaching reforms in the judicial system. Anti-government demonstrations broke out on Saturday night. For example in Tel Aviv.