Enlarge image
Rescue workers treat the injured after the attack
Photo: ATEF SAFADI/EPA
As believers left the synagogue after Shabbat prayers on Friday, the attacker opened fire in an Israeli settlement in east Jerusalem.
Seven people were shot dead and three others injured, police said on Friday evening.
According to the police, the man went to the synagogue in the Neve Jaakov settlement at around 8:15 p.m. (local time) and opened fire there.
Security forces had searched the area in the evening to ensure that there were no other possible attackers there.
According to initial findings, the attacker was a 21-year-old from East Jerusalem.
The man wanted to flee in the car after the crime, but he was shot himself.
Shalom Borov, a barber who lives near the attacked synagogue, told AFP that he "saw the terrorist arriving in his car."
The man "stopped in the middle of the intersection" and "shot out of his car."
He continued shooting even after helpers had rushed to the crime scene.
"I heard a lot of shots," reported 18-year-old student Matanel Almalem, who lives near the synagogue.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Many countries have sharply condemned the attack in East Jerusalem, and there are growing concerns that the violence could escalate further.
UN Secretary-General Guterres asked for "extreme restraint".
Read more reactions here.
The attack was carried out on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
On January 27, 1945, Red Army soldiers liberated the survivors of the German concentration and extermination camp at Auschwitz in occupied Poland.
The Nazis had murdered more than a million people there, mostly Jews.
Enlarge image
Benjamin Netanyahu at the scene of the crime in Neve Yaakov
Photo: Maya Alleruzzo / dpa
In the evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the scene of the crime, accompanied by Minister for National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Israeli police chief Kobi Shabtai spoke of "one of the worst attacks we have seen in recent years."
Security situation already tense – US Secretary of State will travel to Israel as planned early next week
The security situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories has deteriorated significantly in recent days.
Militant Palestinians in Gaza and major West Bank cities held celebrations Friday night shortly after the terrorist attack.
Eyewitnesses reported militants firing into the air and pouring into the streets.
Today more than 600,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The Palestinians claim the territories for an independent state of Palestine with the Arab-influenced eastern part of Jerusalem as the capital.
A spokesman for the radical Islamist group Hamas, which rules in the Gaza Strip, said the attack near the synagogue was "retaliation for the Israeli army's attack on the Jenin refugee camp on Thursday".
Nine Palestinians were killed and 20 others injured in a firefight with Israeli soldiers in the city.
According to the human rights organization Betselem, it was the deadliest military attack in the area in more than 20 years.
As a result, allied militant groups from the Gaza Strip fired at least seven rockets at Israel on Friday night.
Israeli warplanes then destroyed, among other things, an underground missile production facility in the coastal enclave.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken wants to try to de-escalate during a visit to the Middle East on Monday and Tuesday.
As his spokesman said, Blinken, who is already visiting Egypt on Sunday, is sticking to his travel plans even after the attack in Jerusalem.
ani/dpa/AFP
