Shootout in Israel fatal to officer, 3 attackers

JERUSALEM -- A deadly firefight broke out Wednesday in the heart of Jerusalem between Israeli police officers and three Palestinian assailants armed with rifles, knives and bombs, Israeli police said.

It was the first time Palestinians appeared to have coordinated an attack against Israeli security forces. Israeli police said assault marked a serious escalation in the daily violence that has plagued Israel and the occupied West Bank for more than four months.

Since early October, 27 Israelis have been killed, as well as four foreign citizens, in a series of knifing, shooting and vehicular attacks by Palestinians. More than 150 Palestinians have been killed, with more than 100 said to have been carrying out attacks, and the rest during clashes with the Israeli military. Hundreds have been injured on both sides.

Wednesday's shootout, which took place just outside the walls of the Old City, left one police officer dead. The three Palestinian attackers also were shot dead. And a second Israeli police officer was critically injured.

Israeli police spokesman Luba Samri said the two female officers had been on a routine patrol when they spotted two men acting suspiciously. After approaching them and asking for identification, one of the men pulled out an automatic rifle and started shooting, Samri said. The other two Palestinian men joined in the attack before being overpowered by additional Israeli forces that arrived.

Until now, most acts of violence have tended to be carried out by opportunistic lone wolves, usually Palestinian teenagers armed with stones or knives or using cars. Only a few of the attackers have used guns.

Jerusalem district police deputy commander Avishai Peled said that the use of automatic rifles and explosives was "unprecedented in the current wave of violence and is seen as an escalation." He said Israel's Shin Bet security agency would be involved in investigating the attack.

The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the three Palestinian men as Ahmed abu Al-rub, Mohammed Kamil and Ahmed Zakarna, all in their early 20s, from the town of Kabatia near Jenin. It is still unclear if they were affiliated with one of the militant Palestinian groups.

Israeli police said the officer killed was Hadar Cohen, 19.

Israel's former foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, told Israeli TV that Israel needed to do more to stop the violence, even though Israel has been criticized in international forums as being too harsh in its responses to the attacks.

Maj. Gen. Nitsan Alon, head of the Israeli army's operations directorate, told a gathering of foreign journalists Wednesday that the violence showed no signs of abating and that Israel needed to adapt its response accordingly.

"We are working with the assumption that this wave of terror will be with us at least until the end of 2016," he said. "But we think it's important, as part of our counterterrorism measures, to separate between Palestinian terrorism and civilian society. The political echelons have adopted our recommendation not to close the West Bank and allow Palestinians to continue working in Israel."

On Monday, after a similar shooting at a West Bank checkpoint by a Palestinian security officer, the Israeli military imposed a partial closure on the nearby Palestinian city of Ramallah.

A Section on 02/04/2016

Upcoming Events