:ISRAEL GAZA: Israeli police say three killed and 16 injured in Jerusalem shooting
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Of those injured, three are in serious condition and the rest suffered “various degrees of injuries (including victims of shock)”, a police spokesperson said.
The terrorists who carried out the attack in Jerusalem were later identified as east Jerusalem residents with ties to Hamas. Police say the attack was carried out by “two armed terrorists, brothers in their 30s from the Zur Baher neighbourhood in East Jerusalem” at around 07:40 local time.
The attackers “shot at civilians at bus and shuttle stations, using an M-16 rifle and a handgun”.
The “immediate response” of two off-duty Israeli soldiers and a civilian near the scene of the attack led to the “neutralization and elimination of the two terrorists” before police arrived, a spokesperson said.
One of the three Israelis killed in a shooting attack at the entrance to Jerusalem on Thursday morning is Rabbi Elimelech Wasserman, who served as a rabbinical judge in the rabbinical court in Ashdod, according to Religious Services Minister Michael Malchieli.
Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, president of the First Supreme Rabbinical Court, said in a statement that he “mourns the tragic murder of the rabbinic judge, Rabbi Elimelech Wasserman, who was brutally killed by evildoers this morning in Jerusalem.
Other victims are: , Chana Ifergan, 64, and Livia Dickman, 24.
Ifergan served as the principal of the Beis Yaakov Bnot Hadassah school in Beit Shemesh.
Dickman was a resident of the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem.
The police say they have further reinforced “current security measures in the city, including adding patrols, improvised roadblocks, and checking suspects” after the attack.
Officials are launching an investigation into the attack, the spokesperson added.
Jerusalem attack may demonstrate increasing tensions outside Gaza
The incident in Jerusalem this morning, which killed three people and injured several others, perhaps demonstrates how the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is leading to increased tensions in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The two attackers were brothers known to the Israeli security services as Hamas supporters from (Palestinian) East Jerusalem and had both served prison sentences for what Israeli sources described as “terrorist activity”.
Shortly after the incident, Israeli police released pictures showing a large amount of bullets and automatic rifle magazines in the assailants’ car, suggesting they had perhaps planned to go on a wider rampage elsewhere in the city. Photo: Israeli Police
It follows a similar incident two weeks ago when five Israelis were wounded and one member of the security services was killed in a shooting attack at a checkpoint between the Palestinian city of Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
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