Palestinian well being ministry identifies gunman as Mohannad al-Mazraa, 20, from Azariya, a city within the occupied West Financial institution.
A Palestinian gunman has been shot and killed by an off-duty Israeli police officer in an unlawful Israeli settlement after he opened fireplace wounding at the least six individuals.
The taking pictures on Tuesday passed off outdoors a shopping center within the sprawling Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, within the occupied West Financial institution.
The Palestinian Ministry of Well being recognized the shooter as 20-year-old Mohannad al-Mazraa from Azariya, a close-by West Financial institution city.
Reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, Al Jazeera’s Laura Khan stated Israeli police reported that the gunman had opened fireplace in all instructions wounding a number of individuals, earlier than he was shot at and killed by Israeli forces.
Khan defined that unlawful Israeli settlements had been a recurrent flashpoint for Israeli-Palestinian stress and violence.
“These settlements should not solely deemed unlawful, however Palestinians take into account them a type of colonisation that’s encroaching upon Palestinian lands,” stated Khan.
Hamas, the motion that has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, praised the assault as “heroic”, however stopped wanting claiming duty.
Israel’s far-right nationwide safety minister Itamar Ben-Gvir arrived on the website shortly after the incident. Earlier on Tuesday, Ben-Gvir led an incursion on the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, together with dozens of different Israeli settlers.
Combating between Israel and the Palestinians within the occupied West Financial institution intensified early final yr when Israel launched near-nightly raids into Palestinian areas within the West Financial institution. A spate of Palestinian assaults towards Israelis additionally intensified.
Palestinian and Israeli media reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Protection Minister Yoav Gallant had been following the safety scenario within the West Financial institution.
Greater than 200 Palestinians have been killed this yr within the occupied Palestinian territories, together with East Jerusalem and Gaza, with nearly all of fatalities recorded within the occupied West Financial institution.
At the very least 26 individuals have been killed in Palestinian assaults towards Israelis throughout that point.
Officers have warned that 2023 is on monitor to be the deadliest yr for Palestinians within the West Financial institution for the reason that United Nations started holding monitor of fatalities in 2005.
Beforehand, 2022 had been the deadliest yr for Palestinians within the occupied West Financial institution, with 150 individuals killed, of which 33 had been minors, in line with the UN. It was the sixth consecutive annual improve within the West Financial institution dying toll and coincided with the beginning of near-daily raids on the realm.
The rising variety of fatalities final yr prompted UN specialists to sentence the remedy of Palestinians, together with assaults on their houses and destruction of their property.
Israel captured the West Financial institution within the 1967 Mideast conflict, together with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. Palestinians search these territories for his or her hoped-for impartial state.