Police launch search after shots fired in Jerusalem

Police were hunting Friday evening for an armed assailant after reports of gunfire in the Nof Zion neighborhood of south Jerusalem, near the Palestinian neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber. There were no casualties, but bullet shells were found in the area.

In the Shuafat neighborhood in northeast Jerusalem, a Palestinian threw a rock at a train on the light rail network after Friday prayers at a local mosque. There was no damage or casualties in the incident.

With tensions high after weeks of clashes in Jerusalem and a deadly terror attack Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces deployed four extra battalions in the West Bank in an effort to prevent an escalation of violence in the area where Eitam and Naama Henkin were murdered when gunmen opened fire on their car.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian journalist said Friday that he had been shot in the leg by IDF soldiers as he covered a demonstration in the West Bank.

Ahmed Talaat, an independent cameraman, told AFP by telephone as he was being evacuated by ambulance that he had been shot in the thigh by a .22 caliber bullet of a type used by the IDF.

Talaat said he was hit while covering a weekly demonstration against settlements held in Kafr Qaddum, west of Nablus. Organizers of the demonstration said Talaat was wearing a vest marked “Press” and was carrying several cameras.

Palestinian news agency Wafa claimed that two of the demonstrators were wounded by gunfire. An IDF spokeswoman said she could not provide any information on the incidents.

Wafa also said that a 35-year-old man had been shot in the leg by settlers near Bethlehem, and police said settlers had stoned a number of cars and set fire to olive trees.

Earlier Friday, a Border Police officer was lightly hurt by stone throwers in the Old City of Jerusalem and an Israeli woman and her daughter were also lightly hurt when rocks were thrown at their car in the West Bank.

— AFP contributed to this report.