According to the police, the perpetrator shot at a group of Israelis who were on their way out of a synagogue in occupied East Jerusalem on Friday, several media reports. The attack is said to have taken place around 20.15 local time (19.15 Norwegian time), writes the Reuters news agency. The police are treating the shooting as a terrorist incident. Photos from the scene show several victims lying covered in the road outside the synagogue. Photo: AMMAR AWAD / Reuters Among the seven killed, there will be a 15-year-old boy, writes Aljazeera. Ten people are said to have been injured in the attack. Three of these were taken to hospital with critical injuries, writes the newspaper Haaretz. They must be between 14 and 70 years old. The perpetrator is said to have been shot and killed on the spot, according to both the Israeli police and the health system. Paying tribute to the attack The militant Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Holy War are paying tribute to Friday’s attack. The situation is tense in the area after at least nine Palestinians were killed in a refugee camp in Jenin on the West Bank on Thursday. Clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian protesters in the West Bank today. Photo: AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP This was one of the deadliest attacks in a long time and was aimed at militant Islamist groups in the area. Civilian lives were also lost. A spokesperson from the group Hamas says that the shooting incident on Friday was a response to the military action in Jenin the previous day. Britain’s Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, condemns the attack which took place on International Holocaust Day. – Attacking a group at a synagogue on Holocaust Remembrance Day, and during the Sabbath, is appalling, Cleverly tweeted on Friday evening. Rocket attacks On the night of last Friday, two rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards the southern part of Israel. Both missiles were shot down. The Islamic Holy War group has claimed responsibility for the attack. The Israeli raid on the West Bank triggered clashes between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers in the West Bank on Thursday. Photo: Majdi Mohammed / AP Israel then sent up fighter jets that went on airstrikes against training centers of Palestinian militant groups. Eyewitnesses and local media say that drones fired two rockets at a base in the central part of the Gaza Strip. Danger of war Violence has escalated in the occupied West Bank and more than 150 Palestinians have been killed during the past year. Many of those killed are in areas where extremist Palestinian groups are based. The fear is a new intifada or a war between Hamas or Islamic Jihad and Israel. War occurs at regular intervals, and there is always a great danger of violent rebellion, but an intifada takes more, according to senior researcher Jørgen Jensehaugen at Prio. Associate Professor Jørgen Jensehaugen. Photo: Høyskolen Innlandet – Although there is a lot of anger and frustration and legitimate things to be upset about, the Palestinians are very divided, and that makes a total united uprising less likely. In addition, the Palestinians have become more isolated, with few allies in the region, says Jensehaugen to news. The White House says in a statement that the United States is deeply concerned about the violence in the West Bank and asks both parties to come to their senses. The UN, Egypt and Qatar have also done the same. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is not looking to escalate the conflict, but at the same time asks its security forces to be on the alert. Facts about Israeli occupation * During the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel occupied the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan and the Golan Heights from Syria. * In 1979, Israel concluded a peace agreement with Egypt and withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula. * As a result of the Oslo Agreement in 1993, the Palestinians gained political and security control over 18 percent of the West Bank. Israeli forces nevertheless operate regularly in these areas and decide who is allowed in and out. * On 22 percent of the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority and Israel share security responsibility, while Israel has full military control in the remaining area. * Israel has established 132 settlements in violation of international law in the occupied areas of the West Bank, and a further 32 on the Golan Heights. * Israel also largely controls the water resources and infrastructure in the West Bank. * In 2005, Israel withdrew its forces from the Gaza Strip and dismantled the settlements that had been established there. The area has since been under siege, and Israel still controls the airspace and coast beyond. * After the elections in the Palestinian territories in 2006, in which Hamas emerged victorious, Israel introduced a blockade of the Gaza Strip, and the UN still considers the area to be occupied by Israel. * The UN Security Council has, in repeated resolutions, demanded Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. * Israel has never complied with UN resolutions and, thanks to the US veto in the Security Council, has avoided punitive measures. (NTB) Extreme right-wing government Part of the reason why it is so tense now is that Israel has got a new government, which is the most extreme government the country has ever had. Itamar Ben-Gvir, Minister of National Security in Israel. Photo: Atef Safadi / AP Netanyahu promises, among other things, to expand the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. And money, which should have gone to Palestine, has instead been allocated to Israelis who are victims of Palestinian attacks. Central to the new government is Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is minister for national security, as well as Bezalel Smotrich, who is finance minister and at the same time responsible for civil affairs in the West Bank. Both are settlers. Over the years, Smotrich and his radical bloc have advocated, among other things, a full annexation of the West Bank, the expulsion of “disloyal Arabs” and that Israeli soldiers must shoot Palestinians who throw stones. Palestinians demonstrate against Israel’s raids on the West Bank on Thursday. Photo: Fatima Shbair / AP US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit the region next week. The United States, which is Israel’s ally, has previously warned the country against doing things that undermine a two-state solution. Breaks security cooperation with Israel The raid in the West Bank on Thursday led to the Palestinian authorities breaking security cooperation with Israel. – The security cooperation with the Israeli occupation government no longer exists, says Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in a statement. Burials of Palestinians who were killed in an Israeli raid on Jenin on Thursday. Photo: RANEEN SAWAFTA / Reuters A halt in security coordination between Palestine and Israel will particularly affect the possibilities of transferring Palestinian patients from the West Bank and Gaza to Israeli hospitals. The Palestinian authorities have broken security cooperation several times in the past. The US refers to Abbas’s decision on Thursday as a step in the wrong direction.
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At least seven people are said to have been killed in shootings in East Jerusalem – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
