Israeli forces and the emergency service gathered at the site of the attack in the Silwan neighborhood
Two Israeli settlers were wounded in a shooting attack that took place on Saturday in the Silwan neighborhood, south of East Jerusalem.
Speaking to Israel’s Army Radio, a police spokesman described the incident as a “terror attack”.
Police said the attacker was “neutralised”, referring to his death.
The Israeli Ambulance Service said that the injured were seriously injured. Media reports indicated that they are a father and his son, and that one of them is in danger, and the second is in critical condition.
The attack came less than 24 hours following seven Israelis were killed in an attack in East Jerusalem on Friday, in what was described as the largest attack of its kind in years.
The Israeli police said the perpetrator of Saturday’s attack was a 13-year-old boy, and that he had been neutralized.
However, Israeli media reports say that the child was not killed, but was injured and taken to hospital.
“Immediate action”
The Israeli army announced the reinforcement of its forces in the occupied Palestinian territories with a new battalion.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that his government would take “immediate measures” in response to Friday’s attack.
Friday’s attack is one of the deadliest attacks in years, and it comes amid escalating tensions with the Palestinians, and appears in response to an Israeli military operation in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, on Thursday, which killed 10 Palestinians.
Police described the attacker as a “terrorist” and said he had been “neutralised”.
Israeli media reported that the attacker was a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem.
Netanyahu added, in televised remarks following the attack, that the planned decisions would be presented to the cabinet on Saturday.
image copyright Archyde.com
Netanyahu pledged, during his visit to the site of the Jerusalem attack on Friday, that his government would take “immediate measures.”
Netanyahu urged the Israelis not to carry out revenge attacks in response to the incident.
“I appeal to people not to take the law into their own hands, for this purpose we have an army, police and security forces, and they will act in accordance with the instructions of the Council of Ministers,” he said.
US President Joe Biden’s administration described the recent violence as “appalling,” while British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said, “The attack on worshipers in a synagogue on Holocaust Remembrance Day is appalling. We stand with our Israeli friends.”
The BBC’s correspondent in Jerusalem, Yolande Neal, said that the gunman waited outside the synagogue where worshipers gathered to pray at the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath, and when they left, he shot passers-by before trying to flee by car.
Israeli police officers pursued the attacker – who was said to be a 21-year-old Palestinian man from East Jerusalem working alone – and shot him dead.
This bloody attack raised international fears of an escalation of violence between Palestinians and Israelis.
Armed Palestinian groups hailed the attack, saying it was a response to the Israeli military operation in the West Bank on Thursday.
It was the deadliest of its kind in years, and resulted in militants firing several rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip.