Jerusalem violence continues as 13-year-old shoots, injures 2 civilians

Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Two civilians were injured in a fresh shooting incident in occupied East Jerusalem on Saturday, authorities said, just a day after seven people were killed at a synagogue in the city.

Authorities said a 13-year-old Palestinian boy opened fire on passers-by in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan before being shot and wounded by armed civilians, taken into custody and brought to a hospital, officials said.

The victims were identified as a father and son, ages 47 and 23.

The latest incident came as the nation was still reeling from an attack that left seven people dead at a synagogue in the Neve Yaakov area of East Jerusalem and three days after Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians, including an elderly woman, during a raid in Jenin.

Tensions between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants were rising quickly just days ahead of a planned meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his new, right-wing governing coalition.

Friday's synagogue attacker was killed in an exchange of fire with police after fleeing the scene in a vehicle, authorities said, adding they have arrested 42 people in the wake of the assault.

The killings follow a year of escalating violence, with 146 Palestinians, and ten Israelis killed in the West Bank in 2022, according to the Israeli human rights monitor B'Tselem. Additionally, 12 Israelis were killed in Israel, and 32 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.

The number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank was the highest since 2004, and Israeli casualties in the West Bank were at their highest number since 2018. Of 146 Palestinians killed in the West Bank last year, only 42 were armed, according to B'Tselem.

Thursday's raid, in which Israeli forces killed nine people and 20 others were injured, was described by the Israel Defense Forces as an "intel-based counterterrorism" operation to apprehend an Islamic jihad terrorist squad planning an attack for later that day.

The IDF said its soldiers were fired upon during the operation, resulting in a battle in the streets of the refugee camp in Jenin.

Palestinian medics told Middle East Eye that Israeli forces fired warning shots when they tried to treat the wounded, but were eventually able to pass.

Palestinian leaders blame the spate of violence on Netanyahu's government, which they accused Saturday of a "continuation of its colonial settlement practices, land annexation, house demolitions, arrests, policies of ethnic cleansing and apartheid, and the desecration of Islamic, Christian holy sites, and storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque."