Jerusalem hit with more violence

Palestinian, 13, accused of opening fire, wounding 2 Israelis

TEL AVIV — Two Israelis were injured Saturday in a shooting in east Jerusalem, a day after a deadly shooting rampage at a Jerusalem synagogue, the latest in an escalating string of violence that threatens to plunge the region into a new round of bloodshed.

Israel’s emergency services said that they received a report of the shooting in Ma’alot Ir David, an Israeli settlement in east Jerusalem, at 10:42 a.m. Saturday.

The shooting suspect, a 13-year-old Palestinian from the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, was apprehended by an armed civilian at the scene, according to the Israeli police. Earlier reports mistakenly stated that the shooter was killed on-site.

Israeli authorities announced Saturday new anti-terrorism measures, as well as a loosening of restrictions on civilian gun ownership, but stopped short of retaliatory military strikes.

Far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir announced plans Saturday to seal and demolish the homes of assailants’ families and make it easier for Israeli citizens to obtain gun licenses. The measures, which are in line with previous Israeli responses to Palestinian attacks, are still pending approval by Israel’s attorney general.

In his televised remarks, Ben Gvir sought to preempt criticism that the policies didn’t go far enough and blamed the attorney general for not acting more quickly.

“In my opinion, it is terrible, this harms Israeli civilians,” he said.

Israeli military and police have been put on the highest possible alert level, requesting the public to report suspicious objects that could be a bomb, and boosting forces throughout east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Israel in anticipation of further violence.

Israeli police said Saturday that they had arrested 42 people in connection with a shooting Friday that killed seven people, including a 14-year-old boy, during Friday night prayer services.

The weekend shootings took place in east Jerusalem, a contested part of the city that Israel has controlled since its annexation in 1967 and which is claimed by both Israelis and Palestinians as their capital.

Details began to emerge about those who were killed in Friday’s attack, including a married couple in their 40s, Eli and Natalie Mizrahi. After hearing gunshots on the street, they left their dinner and went down to the street to offer help, Eli’s father, Shimon, told reporters near the site of the shooting.

“The terrorist was standing there and he took out his gun, shot them, got into his car and escaped,” he said.

Among the injured were a 60-year-old woman and a 15-year-old boy.

The suspected gunman has been identified as Khairi Alqam, a 21-year-old Palestinian from the east Jerusalem neighborhood of A-Tur, according to Israeli and Palestinian media. Alqam was named after his grandfather, who was fatally stabbed in 1998, allegedly by a Jewish attacker, the Israeli news site Ynet reported.

Among those arrested on suspicion of carrying out the attack was Chaim Perlman, a member of the violently anti-Arab Kahana Chai movement, who was detained for a month in 2010. After his release, Perlman was forbidden by security forces from contacting several right-wing activists, including former Kahanist Ben Gvir, now Israel’s national security minister.

Israeli police said Alqam entered the synagogue about 8:15 p.m in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Neve Yaakov. After opening fire at worshippers, police said he ran into the street, where he took shots at pedestrians. He tried to flee by car before Israeli security officers killed him at the scene. He is believed to have acted alone and has no criminal record.

U.S. officials on prearranged visits to the region must now navigate a moment of peril.

CIA Director William Burns was in Israel last week and Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to visit Monday and Tuesday. Blinken will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank, the State Department said.

Blinken condemned the attacks Friday “in the strongest terms.”

“The notion of people being targeted as they leave a house of worship is abhorrent,” he said, adding that it was “particularly tragic” that the attack happened on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

In a call Friday with Netanyahu, President Joe Biden “made clear that this was an attack against the civilized world,” and stressed the “ironclad U.S. commitment to Israel’s security,” according to a White House readout.

Josep Borrell, the European Union’s chief diplomat, said Saturday that the EU “fully recognizes Israel’s legitimate security concerns,” but urged restraint: “It has to be stressed that lethal force must only be used a last resort,” he said.