© Ronen Zvulun / Reuters
Israeli police and emergency personnel stand next to a car covered with bullet holes after Israeli police killed an Arab assailant who fired from the car wounding several people in Jerusalem.
Israeli police said.
The shooting is preliminarily being considered a terrorist attack, according to a police spokesman. The incident took place near Israeli police's National Headquarters located near the Ammunition Hill memorial site, according to Israeli police. A perpetrator was shooting from a car.
The attacker escaped and headed to the tomb of the Hebrew prophet Samuel, 1.3 kilometers north of Jerusalem's Ramot neighborhood. Police officers were later
able to "neutralize" the attacker, police said. "When the terrorist spotted the police he fired at them, and they managed to shoot and kill him," a police spokeswoman said, as cited by Reuters. Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said that the attacker has been identified as a 39-year-old man from the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.
Two victims, a 60-year-old woman and a 30-year-old police officer, died in hospital following the attack,
Haaretz reported. The injured victims were taken to Hadassah Hospital Mt. Scopus, the hospital said, as cited by the
Times of Israel. The attacker was due to start a four-month jail sentence next week for assaulting a police officer, a spokeswoman for Israel's Prisons Service said, as cited by Reuters.
Hamas has claimed responsibility for the attack. According to the organization's spokesman, the attack was "a natural reaction" to the occupation "against our people."
Comment: All attacks are terrorist unless perpetrated by an Israeli. Should Israel be surprised that Arabs have negative reactions to illegal occupation and unwarranted use of deadly force?