A feminine soldier was killed in a shooting assault at the Shuafat checkpoint in East Jerusalem on Saturday evening.
A guard was additionally significantly hurt in the assault. The two have been rushed to a hospital in Jerusalem for medical remedy after the assault, in accordance with police and medics.
The soldier’s demise was declared at the hospital, the Israel Defense Forces mentioned in an announcement.
The army introduced her demise round 5 hours after the assault, after her household had been notified. There have been no additional particulars about her id. It wasn’t instantly clear if she had died instantly, or after receiving remedy at the hospital.
The Palestinian gunman apparently arrived on foot and fired at safety forces at the checkpoint round 9 p.m. earlier than fleeing into the close by refugee camp with the assistance of a automotive.
Two Border Police officers have been flippantly injured by shrapnel in the shooting.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed accountability for the assault. The brigades are a coalition of armed teams related to the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s ruling Fatah occasion. The terror group has carried out joint assaults with Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the West Bank.
“This is only the beginning in a series of terror attacks in response to the killings of our leaders and the desecration of the holy Al-Aqsa,” the group mentioned in an announcement. Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is the third-holiest shrine in Islam. It sits atop the Temple Mount, the positioning of the 2 historic Jewish temples, the holiest place in Judaism. The web site is a frequent flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian battle.
Police mentioned three suspects had been arrested. The suspects have been in their 20s and from the West Bank’s Shuafat and Anata, and Beit Hanina in East Jerusalem.
Three members of the suspected shooter’s household have been additionally arrested in Shuafat, Army Radio reported.
A person suspected of driving the shooter from the scene turned himself in to police.
The driver claimed he was giving the shooter a journey to Modi’in when the attacker obtained out of the car at the checkpoint and fired at least seven rounds, earlier than his weapon jammed.
Israeli safety forces at the scene of a shooting assault at a checkpoint outdoors the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem, October 8, 2022 (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
Security forces raided the Shuafat refugee camp hours after the assault in search of the shooter and two different suspects. Special forces models and a helicopter took half in the manhunt. Jerusalem District Police Commander Doron Turgeman mentioned the id of three suspects was recognized to police.
The Gaza-based Hamas terror group mentioned it “blessed the heroic operation,” calling the shooting “a reaction to the incursions into al-Aqsa and the aggression by the occupation today against Jenin.” Earlier Saturday, two Palestinians have been killed during an arrest operation by the IDF in Jenin, a metropolis in the West Bank.
“These operations carry a message that the revolt of our people is in progress and will not subside and that the operations, shootings, and gunfire of our youth in revolt will haunt the occupiers and herds of settlers everywhere in response to their crimes and their incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” Hamas mentioned.
Photos from the scene of the shooting confirmed blood smeared throughout a swath of paving stones and pavement subsequent to a guard sales space, as police closed off the realm with purple tape and picked up proof.
Public Security Minister Omer Barlev, who arrived on the scene alongside high police officers, mentioned safety forces “will lay their hands on the attacker, alive or dead.”
Prime Minister Yair Lapid denounced the “grave” assault and his workplace mentioned he was being briefed on the shooting.
“The heart is with the wounded and their families. Terror will not defeat us — we are strong, even on this difficult evening,” Lapid mentioned in an announcement.
The scene of a shooting assault at a checkpoint outdoors the Shuafat refugee camp in Jerusalem, October 8, 2022. (Flash90)
Celebratory fireworks have been reported in Shuafat after the shooting.
The incident comes as army and police are on heightened alert in Jerusalem and the West Bank over the Jewish vacation season. The Prime Minister’s Office mentioned that over Shabbat, Lapid held a safety evaluation forward of the beginning of the Sukkot competition Sunday night “with an emphasis on the deployment of forces in Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, as well as elsewhere across the country.”
Tensions have been already excessive on account of an ongoing anti-terror marketing campaign in the West Bank that has seen over 100 Palestinians killed and greater than 2,000 arrested in nightly raids, throughout which Israeli troops have commonly been focused by gunfire. Most of these killed have been gunmen or individuals in violent clashes, however some have been unarmed civilians.
The operation was launched after a collection of assaults that killed 19 individuals between mid-March and the start of May.
