A Hamas gunman went on a shooting spree in the Old City of Jerusalem on Sunday morning, killing one Israeli and injuring four others.
The attacker is a known Hamas supporter and a Jerusalem-based mosque preacher, the Israeli media reported. “Described by his friends and acquaintances as an “Islamic scholar,” the 42-year-old Abu Shkhaydam was a well-known mosque preacher in east Jerusalem mosques, including the al-Aqsa Mosque. Others referred to him as a “senior Hamas official in Jerusalem”,” the Jerusalem Post reported.
The man who died in the terrorist attack has been identified as a 26-year-old Jerusalem tour guide. “The man killed in today’s terror attack in Jerusalem’s Old City is named as Eliyahu David Kaye, 26, from the city of Modiin,” The Times of Israel reported. “Kaye, a recent immigrant from South Africa who was employed at the Western Wall, was shot dead by a Palestinian gunman.
Among the injured is a 46-year-old Rabbi and father of eight, and a student of a Jewish religious school.
Israeli news outlet Ynet News reported the Jerusalem terrorist attack:
One man died and three other were wounded, one in serious condition – in a shooting attack in the Old City of Jerusalem.Two members of the police were among the injuries and were said to have sustained slightly injured.The assailants, a 42-year old Fadi Abu Shkhaydam, a resident of the Shuafat refugee camp in Jerusalem, who opened fire, was shot dead by troops.Minister of Public Security Omer Barlev, said on Sunday that the man was a member of the Hamas terror group and that the police believe the attack was planned in advance and that the assailant’s wife had left the country last week.
In an apparently related incident in the Israeli city of Jaffa, an Palestinian knife attacker injured a 67-year-old man. The police are reportedly treating the stabbing as a terrorist attack. “If confirmed, it would be the second terror attack of the day,” the Times of Israel noted.
The Jerusalem shooting comes days after the British government announced its intent to ban the Hamas terrorist group in its entirety. The move provoked angry reaction from the Gaza-based Islamic terrorist group. Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror militia also slammed the UK for blacklisting the fellow terrorist organization.
Iran, Hamas’s leading donor, is also stepping up efforts to stage terrorist attacks on Israelis and Jews abroad. In recent month, Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency has helped in foiling Iranian terrorist attacks in Colombia, Cyprus and a number of African countries.
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