According to Israeli medical services, a 13-year-old boy with a gun hit two people this Saturday in East Jerusalem, less than a day after seven people were killed outside a synagogue, the AP said.
According to that news agency, the attack this morning, which took place near the historic Cidade Velha, injured a father and son, aged 47 and 23.
The AP reports that authorities have announced that they have shot the attacker and that he has been taken to a hospital, but there is no news about his condition.
This shooting, a day before the arrival of US Secretary of State António Blinken, could escalate the conflict between Israel and the West Bank, which has been occupied for several years, the AP points out.
On Friday, a Palestinian gunman killed at least seven people, including a woman in her 70s, in a Jewish settlement with a large ultra-Orthodox population in East Jerusalem.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has convened a security cabinet meeting tonight to discuss a response to the attack at the synagogue and Israeli police have launched a security crackdown.
The United States condemned this attack “in the strongest terms” and the European Union said it was shocked by Friday’s attack on a synagogue in Jerusalem, as well as previous attacks, stressing that the “terrible events” show that “it is urgent is to reverse this spiral of violence and launch strong initiatives to resume peace negotiations”.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres also condemned the armed attack near the East Jerusalem synagogue as “vigorous” and deemed it “particularly despicable” as it occurred on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Portugal has also “firmly” condemned the terrorist attack that took place in Jerusalem on the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust, according to Portugal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MNE).
On its Twitter account, Portugal’s MNE defended that “everything must be done to stop this escalation of violence”.
Russian diplomacy has expressed “deep concern” over escalating tensions between Palestinians and Israelis and has called for “maximum restraint” from all sides.
Source: DN
