- 14 Jul 2017 13:06
#14823442
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... ay-prayers
IF I HAD UNDERSTOOD THE SITUATION A BIT BETTER I SHOULD HAVE PROBABLY JOINED THE ANARCHISTSGeorge Orwell
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... ay-prayers
Two Israeli cops have been shot dead and three gunmen killed during an early-morning shootout in one of Jerusalem’s most holy and sensitive sites.
The attack – involving three Israeli citizens of Palestinian origin – took place just after 7am in the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif complex in Jerusalem beginning near the Lion’s Gate entrance to the compound which is revered as a holy site by both Muslims and Jews.
Confirmation of the death of the two male police officers who were wounded in the attack came a few hours after the incident from police chief Roni Alsheich.
The incident was among the most serious in Jerusalem in recent years and threatened to raise Israeli-Palestinian tensions.
According to police, the three men – residents of the Israeli Arab town of Umm al-Fahm who were armed with home-made machine guns and a pistol – opened fire on police near the gate before fleeing back into the heart of the compound which houses the al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.
Israel’s Shin Bet security service later named the three attackers as Mohammed Ahmed Mohammed Jabareen, aged 29, Mohammed Hamed Abd Al-Latif Jabareen, 19, and Mohammed Ahmed Mafdal Jabareen, also 19, noting that none had previous security convictions.
As Israeli police pursued the men, a heavy exchange of gunfire took place, startling early-morning worshippers in the central plaza, some of whom recorded the shootout on camera phones.
In the immediate aftermath the compound was cleared of visitors and closed, with police announcing that Muslim Friday prayers, usually attended by thousands, would be cancelled for the first time in 17 years.
The two dead police officers were later named as Hael Sathawi, 30, and Kamil Shnan, 22.
The attack was condemned by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in a rare phone call to the Israeli president, Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the Palestinian Wafa news agency.
Video footage recorded during the attack showed shooting and police running across the central plaza in pursuit of the attackers.
At one point, one of the gunmen, who is seen lying on the ground apparently motionless, is seen jumping up, amid a fresh exchange of fire in which he falls.
A police spokesman described the beginning of the incident.
“When they saw policemen they shot towards them and then escaped towards one of the mosques in the Temple Mount compound,” said Luba Samri. “A chase ensued and the three terrorists were killed by police.”
The al-Aqsa mosque is Islam’s third-holiest site, while the seventh-century Dome of the Rock is also revered by Jews as the site of the historic Temple. Jews are permitted to visit the site but not pray there, a prohibition supported by the mainstream Jewish Halakhic tradition. It is managed under a longstanding arrangement with the Jordanian-supported Islamic institution known as the Waqf.
The last time the complex was closed off to Muslims was after the 2014 shooting of Jewish prayer rights activist Yehudah Glick, now a Knesset member for the Likud, while the last time Friday prayers were cancelled was in 1990.
Netanyahu said in the aftermath of the attack that he would not change prayer rights at the site, despite calls by far-right politicians who sought to exploit the shooting.
IF I HAD UNDERSTOOD THE SITUATION A BIT BETTER I SHOULD HAVE PROBABLY JOINED THE ANARCHISTSGeorge Orwell