A Palestinian killed seven people in a colony in the suburbs of the holy city on Friday evening. It is the worst attack on Israelis for fifteen years, which occurred in the aftermath of an Israeli army raid in Jénine, in the West Bank, who made nine victims.
By Louis Imbert (Jerusalem, correspondent)
He arrived shortly after 8 p.m. He parked his car near a synagogue, on a long sweet slope boulevard. This is the only entrance to the colony of Neve Yaakov, an isolated Israeli community in the distant Arab suburbs in the north of Jerusalem. This 21-year-old Palestinian, resident of East Jerusalem, the part of the holy city occupied since 1967 by Israel, waited alone outside the place of worship, a high building without charm, adorned with yellow stones.
Then he shot pistol on passers -by and on faithful who came out of prayer this Friday, January 27, Shabbat evening. He also targeted neighbors that the noise had attracted to the boulevard. Israeli police have seven dead and three injured, several are old. The Hadassah hospital said it had operated a 15-year-old teenager, who recovers from his injuries.
This is the worst attack on Israelis since 2008, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. That year, a Palestinian had killed eight people in the Mercaz Harav religious school in Jerusalem, the historic cradle of the colon movement.
Friday evening, the attacker tried to flee by car, towards the Palestinian district of Beit Hanina. He exchanged gunshots on the boulevard with the police, then continued on foot. He was shot down a few minutes after his act. Israeli forces already promise to flush out anyone who would have helped him. 2>
Bloody month of January
In the distance, in the hills which extend under Neve Yaakov, around 10 p.m., explosions of firecrackers and cries sound. Palestinians celebrate this attack, in Jerusalem and elsewhere in the occupied territories. These images cause a cold rage in Israel. The Islamist movement Hamas, in power in Gaza, praised “a revenge and a natural response” to the abuses of the Israeli army.
The day before, the soldiers killed nine people in Jenine (north), during the bloodiest raid they have led for two decades in the West Bank. It is a year since Israel is massively suppressed an emerging insurrection, and the month of January is terrible. The Palestinian Ministry of Health counts thirty deaths.
At the evening of Jénine’s operation, rockets have been drawn from Gaza, arousing Israeli strikes. The president of the Palestinian authority, Mahmoud Abbas, announced the rupture of the security cooperation agreements which bind it to the Hebrew State – a gesture heavy with consequences, if it is implemented.
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