A day after Israeli forces attacked the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank and killed 10 Palestinians, a Palestinian gunman retaliated and shot dead 7 Israelis in the occupied city of Jerusalem.
Less than 24 hours after Israeli occupation forces killed 10 Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, a young Palestinian gunman, identified as Khairi Alqam from occupied Jerusalem, shot dead 7 Israelis and wounded 3 others in the occupied city of Jerusalem on this Friday.
According to the Israeli occupation police, the 21-year-old Khairi Alqam arrived at a building in the Israeli settlement of Neve Yaakov, in the northern part of occupied East Jerusalem, and at around 8:15 pm, opened fire at Israelis leaving the building.
An Israeli ambulance service confirmed the number of the dead and noted that five people deceased immediately after the shooting and another two were declared dead later at the hospital. A Hebrew-language media reported that Alqam, who had “no prior terror-related offences”, attempted to flee after the incident but the Israeli police killed him right at the scene.
Hours after what happened in Neve Yaakov, the Israeli occupation forces raided Alqam’s birthplace, Al-Tur in East Jerusalem, surrounded his house, and violently apprehended his parents.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held an assessment with top security officials before heading to the scene of the attack with other ministers. “This is one of the hardest terror attacks we’ve seen in recent years… to our knowledge, this terrorist acted alone. We are continuing to scan the area,” Chief of Jerusalem District Police Doron Turgeman explained.
Israeli settlers have been living in Neve Yaakov since the occupation of the city back in 1967. This is while according to international law, Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal.
Israel’s Friday tragedy, no more than a tit-for-tat response
The death of 7 Israelis that took place this Friday night was no more than a reaction to the raid that the Israeli military, police and security forces carried out against Palestinian civilians a day before, killing 10 people and injuring dozens more.
The attack that happened on Thursday in the refugee camp in the West Bank city of Jenin, was by far the deadliest such raid in years.
To make matters even worse, the Israeli army even blocked Palestinian emergency services from reaching the scene and helping the injured.
Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaileh said that Israeli forces had also “stormed Jenin Government Hospital and intentionally fired tear gas canisters at the pediatric department in the hospital.”
The Israeli military claimed that its troops intended to arrest Islamic Jihad “terror operatives” planning “major attacks”. But the record of all the 10 people who were killed shows no history of criminal activities at all.
After the bloody attack to Jenin, the Palestinian presidency accused Israel of a “massacre” and later announced it had ended co-ordination with Israel on security matters.
Will 2023 be even more violent?
In 2022, Israeli military raids led to more than 2,500 arrests and left 271 Palestinians dead, mostly in the West Bank. But it seems that with the coming to power of Netanyahu and his far-right ministers, 2023 is feared to be even more deadly as in less than one month since the start of the new year, Israeli forces have killed 30 Palestinians.
What further reinforces the idea of an even more violent year ahead in Palestine is the extreme and provocative moves and policies of the new government. Among them one can refer to the unprecedented and illegal entry of far-right Israeli national security minister Ben-Gvir to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, as well as the order of building more settlements in the occupied lands, for example.
