A Palestinian member of Hamas killed one person and wounded three others in a gun attack in the Old City of Jerusalem this Sunday morning (21). The sniper was then killed by police, according to Israeli authorities.
The shots seriously injured two civilians, and one of them died in hospital. Eliyahu Kaye, 25, had just arrived in the country from South Africa. He lost his life “while on his way to work,” according to the body that runs the Wailing Wall, the Jews’ holiest place of prayer. Two police officers sustained minor injuries.
Immediately after the attack, several police officers were stationed in Old Town, where the sniper’s body remained for a long time on the ground.
Israeli Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev declared on television that the attacker was a Palestinian member of Hamas and that he lived in the Shuafat neighborhood of East Jerusalem. According to police, he was 42 years old.
“He was a member of Hamas, the political branch, not the armed branch. From the images we have, it looks like he was wearing a large galabeya (traditional attire) or that he disguised himself as an Orthodox Jew,” the minister said on the Israeli channel Kan. “His wife left [do paÃs] for three days and the son is also abroad (…). It seems that the attack was premeditated,” he added.
In a statement, the Hamas leadership confirmed that the sniper, Fadu Abu Shukhaydam, was a member of the organization. However, the Islamic movement has not claimed responsibility for the attack, carried out exactly six months after the end of the last war between Hamas and Israel.
“Our martyr in Jerusalem has spent his life preaching jihad. This heroic operation is a warning to our enemy and his government to stop occupying our land,” Hamas said in a statement from the Gaza Strip.
In a recent sermon at a Jerusalem mosque, whose recording was seen by the AFP news agency, the attacker accused the Israelis of “being the fathers of oppression, financed by Satan and the United Arab Emirates”, a country that reestablished relations last year with Israel.
After the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett demanded the strengthening of the security system in Jerusalem and asked the population and the police to be vigilant on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, which is celebrated from 28 November.
Last Wednesday (17), a 16-year-old Palestinian wounded two members of the Israeli security forces with a knife in the Old City. The attacker was killed by police, which led to clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces in the Issawiya neighborhood of East Jerusalem, where the young man was from.
President Yitzhak Herzog, who flew to London on Sunday, said “the international community must recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization,” according to a statement from his cabinet.
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