Five people wounded in Jerusalem shooting, in likely criminal incident
Police say violent fight broke out between Arab families, leading to gunfire; officers launch investigation, search for suspects
Five people were wounded in a shooting in Jerusalem late Saturday, in what appeared to be a criminal incident related to a fight between Arab families, police said.
Magen David Adom (MDA) medics received reports after midnight on Saturday of multiple people injured in a shooting on Dov Yosef Street in the largely Jewish neighborhood of Gilo, close to the Arab neighborhood of Beit Safafa.
The medics found five people at the scene with gunshot wounds, including one in serious condition, and transferred them to Shaare Zedek Medical Center and Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital for medical treatment. Three of the injured shooting victims were listed in moderate condition, and one sustained light injuries.
MDA medic Roy Ben-Shoham said first responders arrived on the scene and saw five people lying on the ground, “some on a sidewalk and some in the yard of a house.”
“They were all fully conscious and suffering from gunshot wounds,” he added.
Police said they opened an investigation into the incident and began a search for suspects. According to preliminary findings, the shooting appeared to have followed a violent fight “as a result of a conflict between families,” according to police, and not a terror attack. MDA similarly said the shooting incident appeared related to a fight between rival Arab clans.
הירי בגילה: ההערכה היא כי מדובר בסכסוך בין חמולות. בתיעוד – רגעי הקטטה@HGoldich pic.twitter.com/OhM4VY4Ivp
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) April 8, 2023
Arab communities have seen a rising wave of violence in recent years. Many blame the police, which they say has failed to crack down on powerful criminal organizations and largely ignores the violence, which includes family feuds, mafia turf wars and violence against women.
According to the anti-violence campaign group the Abraham Initiatives, 43 Arab Israelis have been killed in violent incidents since the start of the year.
Meanwhile, Israel has been gripped by a wave of terror attacks that claimed the lives of three people on Friday alone. Two Israeli-British sisters were murdered in a shooting attack that also critically wounded their mother in the West Bank Friday afternoon. On Friday night, an Italian tourist was killed and several others were hurt in a suspected car-ramming attack on the Tel Aviv promenade.
The attacks followed days of high tensions in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and after tit-for-tat rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and Israeli strikes, a major rocket barrage from Lebanon, clashes at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, and a suspected Iranian drone launched from Syria last week.
The Islamic holy month of Ramadan this year once again coincides with the Jewish festival of Passover. It is known to be a tense period, with an uptick in violence between Palestinians and Israeli forces.
The military is set to boost forces in the West Bank, the Jordan Valley and the so-called seam zone — an area of land between the West Bank security barrier and Israel — following the recent terror attacks. The moves come after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered an immediate call-up of Border Police reserves officers late Friday.
Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.
