A 13-year-old Palestinian youth was wounded by armed civilians after police said he opened fire on passers-by in East Jerusalem on Saturday. Photo by Atef Safadi/EPA-EFE
Jan. 28 (UPI) — Two civilians were injured in a fresh shooting incident in occupied East Jerusalem on Saturday, authorities said, just a day after seven people were killed at a synagogue in the troubled city.
Authorities said a 13-year-old Palestinian attacker opened fire on passers-by in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan before being shot and wounded by armed civilians, taken into custody and brought to a hospital, officials said.
The victims were identified as a father and son, ages 47 and 23.
The latest incident came as the nation was still reeling from an attack that left seven people dead at a synagogue in the Neve Yaakov neighborhood of East Jerusalem and three days after Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians, including an elderly woman, during a raid in Jenin.
Tensions between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants were rising quickly just days ahead of a planned meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his new, right-wing governing coalition.
Friday’s synagogue attacker was killed in an exchange of fire with police after fleeing the scene in a vehicle, authorities said, adding they have arrested 42 people in the wake of the assault.
Thursday’s incident, in which Israeli forces killed nine people and 20 others were injured, was described by the Israel Defense Forces as an “intel-based counterterrorism” operation to apprehend an Islamic jihad terrorist squad planning an attack for later that day.
The IDF said its soldiers were fired upon during the operation, resulting in a battle in the streets of the refugee camp in Jenin.
Palestinian leaders blame the spate of violence on Netanyahu’s government, which they accused Saturday of a “continuation of its colonial settlement practices, land annexation, house demolitions, arrests, policies of ethnic cleansing and apartheid, and the desecration of Islamic, Christian holy sites, and storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
In December, United Nations Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland told the Security Council that more than 150 Palestinians and 20 Israelis were killed in the West Bank last year.