CNN
–
At least seven people were killed and three wounded in a shooting near a synagogue in Jerusalem on Friday amid heightened tensions between Israel and the Palestinian territories, Israeli police said.
Friday’s shooter was also later killed by police forces, according to police, in what Police Chief Yaakov Shabtai described as “one of the worst terrorist attacks in the past few years.”
“As a result of the firing attack, 7 civilians were declared dead and 3 others were injured with additional degrees of injuries,” the police said.
Five of the shooting victims were pronounced dead at the scene, Israel’s Magn David Adom Emergency Rescue Service said: four men and one woman. Five people were taken to hospital where another man and woman were pronounced dead.
According to a police statement, the attack happened at 8:15 p.m. local time, near a synagogue on New Yaakov Street.
Shabtai said the gunman “started shooting at everyone in his path. He got into his car and started shooting at close range with a pistol. He then drove off in a car,” Shabtai said. I escaped from the spot and was killed in a shootout with the police forces.
Police identified the gunman as a 21-year-old resident of East Jerusalem, saying in a statement that he appeared to have acted alone. East Jerusalem is a predominantly Palestinian area of the city that was occupied by Israel in 1967.
The incident comes a day after the deadliest day for Palestinians in the West Bank in a year, according to CNN. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians and wounded several others in the West Bank city of Jenin on Thursday. A tenth Palestinian that day was killed in what Israeli police described as a “violent riot” near Jerusalem.
Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s controversial national security minister, visited the site of the attack on Friday evening, telling people who chanted angrily that “it can’t go on like this.”
“I can tell you, [the people chanting] you are right. The burden is on us. It cannot continue like this,” said Ben Gower, who also leads the far-right Jewish Power party.
Some people at the scene were chanting in support of Ben Gower, saying “You are our voice, we support you.”
CNN’s Hadas Gold and team, who were also at the scene of Friday night’s shooting, heard gunfire and car horns ringing in celebration from the nearby Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Hanina.
The United States State Department “condemned in the strongest terms” the “apparent terrorist attack” in Jerusalem on Friday.
State Department Deputy Spokesman Vedant Patel said it was absolutely terrifying. “Our thoughts, prayers and condolences go out to those killed and injured in this heinous act of violence.”
Patel said the U.S. was “still gathering information” but that the U.S. government was “in direct contact with our Israeli partners.”
Patel said no change is expected in the schedule of Foreign Minister Antony Blanken’s upcoming visit to Egypt, Israel and the West Bank.
The European Union, France and the United Kingdom have also condemned the shooting.
“I am appalled by the news of the horrific attack in New Ya’akov tonight. The attack on worshipers in a synagogue on Arif Shabbat is a particularly horrific act of terrorism. Britain stands with Israel,” British Ambassador to Israel Neil Wigan said. wrote on Twitter.
The EU ambassador to Israel, Dimiter Tzantchev, also condemned the “senseless violence” in a tweet, saying, “Terrorism never has an answer.”
And the French embassy in Israel tweeted that the incident was “all the more despicable because it was committed on this day of international Holocaust Remembrance.”
