Bodies on Ground After Attack Near Jerusalem Synagogue

Israeli police gathered at the scene of an attack by a Palestinian gunman, who opened fire outside an east Jerusalem synagogue Friday night

Police said the gunman arrived at about 8:15 p.m. and opened fire, hitting a number of people before he was killed by police. TV footage showed several victims lying in the road outside the synagogue being tended to by emergency workers.

The attack, which police described as a “terrorist incident,” underlined fears of an escalation in violence after months of clashes in the West Bank culminating in a raid on Thursday that killed at least nine Palestinians.

There was no initial claim of responsibility for the synagogue attack, which took place as worshippers attended Sabbath services on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, but a spokesman for the Islamist militant group Hamas said the incidents were connected.

“This operation is a response to the crime conducted by the occupation in Jenin and a natural response to the occupation criminal actions,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said. The smaller militant group Islamic Jihad also praised the attack without claiming responsibility.

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-sees-urgent-need-for-de-escalation-in-israel-west-bank—white-house-/6937220.html

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