Netanyahu vows ‘strong, swift’ response after child, 13, opens fire in new Jerusalem terror shooting

“We were in the middle of a meal, several shots rang out and my son jumped up. We shouted to him, “Don’t go anywhere,” Shimon said.

“It looks like he was talking to a terrorist who pulled out a gun and killed him. [Eli] and his wife were killed,” Shimon said. “[The terrorist] stood next to his car and he fired at them. He got into the car and fled.”

At least three other people were injured, including a 15-year-old boy and a 60-year-old woman, who were in the Hadassah hospital on Mount Scopus in a moderate condition. A 24-year-old man was under anesthesia on a ventilator.

The attack sparked immediate outrage over attacks on worshipers leaving Shabbat prayer and comes amid a surge in tensions over Thursday’s Israeli raid on Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters in the Jenin refugee camp that killed nine people, including an elderly woman. woman.

Israeli police killed the gunman after a brief chase after the shooting. He was identified as Khairy Alkam, a 21-year-old resident of eastern Jerusalem, a part of the city annexed by Israel after the 1967 Six-Day War.

There is no indication that he was previously involved in combat activities or was a member of an established Palestinian armed group.

Alkam was named after his grandfather, who was stabbed to death by an Israeli Jew in 1988, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. His family members said he fired at the synagogue in retaliation for the murder of his distant relative, 17-year-old Mohammed Ali from the Shoafat refugee camp, who was shot dead by Israeli forces on Wednesday while carrying a replica firearm.

His father Moussa Alkam said he did not know if his son acted out of revenge or what might have motivated him, adding that his son was an ordinary person with no ties to the militants.

“He is not the first nor the last young man to be martyred, and what he did is a source of pride,” he said.

A police statement said they arrested “42 people for questioning” overnight, “some of them are members of the terrorist’s family.”

Police said other detainees included residents of the area where the shooter was located, where footage shows Palestinians dancing and cheering in honor of Saturday’s shooting. The Israeli Prison Service said Palestinian prisoners who had been celebrating in the prison since Friday’s attack were placed in solitary confinement.