Palestinian gunman kills 2 in Jerusalem as upsurge feared
AFP
AFP, JERUSALEM: A Palestinian opened fire from a car in Jerusalem on Sunday and again as Israeli police chased him, killing two people,
officials said, as fears grew of a new spike in violence.
The gunman, reportedly scheduled to begin a prison term the same day, was killed soon after carrying out the attack near police headquarters, close to the line dividing mainly Arab east Jerusalem from the citys mostly Jewish western sector.
Israeli media reported that the dead included a police officer, but there was no immediate confirmation. Medics said the two killed were a 30-year-old man and a woman aged 60.
It was among the deadliest attacks in Jerusalem over the past year.
The shooting rampage comes at a time of increased Jewish visitors to the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in east Jerusalem for the holidays of Rosh Hashanah, which was last week, and Yom Kippur, which begins Tuesday evening.
Police said the 39-year-old assailant fired in the direction of a tram station in the area, seriously wounding a woman.
He then continued at high speed and shot at a car, leaving another woman badly hurt, they added.
The attacker then headed toward the nearby neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, where a number of upscale hotels are located, and got out of his car, police said.
As officers approached him by motorcycle, he opened fire on them.
Police returned fire and killed him, but two officers were wounded, including one seriously, they said.
Police said the attacker was from the Silwan area of east Jerusalem.
Palestinian media identified the man as Misbah Abu Sbeih and said he was due to begin a four-month prison term on Sunday for attacking an Israeli police officer in 2013.
The reports said Abu Sbeih was a well-known figure at Al-Aqsa mosque and was banned from entering for several months.
In his last public Facebook post on October 7, Abu Sbeih wrote about his longing for the holy site and said Al-Aqsa is a responsibility you have been entrusted with.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking at the start of a cabinet meeting, saluted the police, saying they had acted rapidly and very firmly against the terrorist, who was eliminated.
A spokesman for Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, welcomed the attack.
Fawzi Barhoum called it a natural reaction to the crimes and violations of the occupation against our people.
Al-Aqsa mosque compound is holy to both Muslims and Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount.
The site is central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with Palestinians fearing that Israel may one day seek to assert further control over it.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken by phone to US Secretary of State John Kerry in a bid to calm Washingtons anger over new Israeli settlement plans, an official said Sunday.
The plan to construct what activists say amounts to a new settlement in the heart of the occupied West Bank provoked an unusually harsh response last week from the White House, which accused Israel of betraying its trust.
US President Barack Obamas administration has accelerated its criticism of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank in recent
months, warning it is destroying hopes for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
