Israeli security forces search for suspects following a shooting attack in the neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in east Jerusalem on April 18.Mahmoud Illean/The Associated Press
A Palestinian gunman shot and wounded two Israelis in Jerusalem on Tuesday, police said, the latest bloodshed in a year-long cycle of violence that shows no sign of abating.
Meanwhile, in the northern occupied West Bank, a focus of fighting for the past year, the Israeli military conducted an arrest raid in the Jenin refugee camp, prompting Palestinian militants to open fire. At least six Palestinians were wounded in the firefight, Palestinian health officials said, including a paramedic struck by shrapnel. Residents of the refugee camp reported that three Palestinians were arrested.
Tuesday’s events followed weeks of heightened tensions in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank during a rare convergence this month of the Jewish holiday of Passover and the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Israeli police were searching for the suspected gunman who fled the scene in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. The two Israelis, shot while inside their car, were treated for moderate wounds. Purported security footage from the incident shows the assailant rushing toward their parked car and opening fire at close range before bolting.
Tensions in Israel and the occupied West Bank surged after an Israeli police raid on Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, the compound home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The mosque sits on a hilltop compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, revered as the third-holiest site in Islam and the holiest in Judaism.
The raid set off outrage in the Muslim world and prompted Palestinian militants to fire salvos of rockets at Israel from southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip earlier this month. The Israeli military struck sites linked to the Palestinian group Hamas in those areas in retaliation.
Palestinian attacks against Israelis have killed at least 20 people, including one soldier, since the start of the year. At least 92 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire so far this year, according to a tally by The Associated Press. At least half of them have been affiliated with militant groups.