Israeli police said today that their members killed a “terrorist” who grabbed a member’s service weapon in Jerusalem’s Old City.

The “suspect,” who was being questioned at a gate in Temple Square, east Jerusalem, in the Israeli-annexed Palestinian sector of the holy city, grabbed a police officer’s service weapon and fired once, without injuring anyone, before falling dead, according to Israeli police statement.

The incident unfolded around midnight (local and Greek time). Police said the “terrorist” lived in Hurra, a Bedouin town in southern Israel, and was 26 years old.

Shortly before 01:00, an AFP photojournalist found that about 100 police officers had been deployed in the streets of the old city, near the Square of the Mosques, where the iconic Al-Aqsa mosque is located. The situation was calm.

The bloody episode was recorded on the day when a huge crowd of believers gathered in the Square, for the midday prayer on the second Friday of Ramadan.

The Israeli police, who guard the square’s entrances, said the attendance exceeded 100,000 worshippers, “double that of last year’s second Friday of Ramadan,” and that more than 2,000 of its members were deployed in Jerusalem.

In recent weeks, Western governments have expressed concern over the possibility of violence erupting as the Christian and Jewish Easters this year coincide with the month of Ramadan and since last year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has seen a new flare-up, although tensions appear to have de-escalated. the last week.

In the square, several Palestinians yesterday unfurled and waved flags of Hamas, an Islamist group that Israel describes as a “terrorist” organization, an AFP journalist found, but the day passed in an atmosphere of calm and no incidents were reported even during the night before his death “terrorist” announced by the police.

Mosque Square, the third holiest site in Islam, called the Temple Mount by Jews, is the holiest site in Judaism.