Troops clash with Palestinians in Shuafat amid hunt for East Jerusalem shooter
Army chief says lessons will be learned as probe reportedly finds soldiers failed to respond to attack, with assailant able to walk up to troops during shift switch and open fire
Forces searching for the suspected gunman behind a deadly shooting attack at an East Jerusalem checkpoint clashed with Palestinians at a refugee camp in the city Sunday, as the head of the military vowed to draw lessons from the incident that left a Border Police officer dead and another guard seriously wounded.
Large numbers of police, troops and Shin Bet security service agents were carrying out a manhunt for a gunman who appeared to slip into the Shuafat refugee camp after opening fire on a group of soldiers Saturday night, police said.
A helicopter was being used to scan the crowded area of East Jerusalem from the air, and special forces had also been deployed to bolster the search, police said.
Access to the refugee camp was heavily restricted amid the manhunt and forces who pushed into Shuafat were confronted by dozens of Palestinians, who threw rocks and shot fireworks at troops, according to police and video from the scene.
Police said “riot dispersal methods” were used to clear out masked rioters.
“The refugee camp is completely surrounded … It may take hours, days, but we’ll catch him,” Public Security Minister Omer Barlev told the Kan public broadcaster Sunday. “This isn’t the first time that we see terrorists coming from East Jerusalem. This is a very difficult situation.”
מקורות פלסטיניים: התחדשו העימותים עם כוחות הביטחון במחנה הפליטים שועפאט@VeredPelman @GuyMaayan pic.twitter.com/uAdCun5bqb
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) October 9, 2022
Nearby, IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi visited the scene of the attack, at a checkpoint at the entrance to Shuafat, thanking guards manning the post but hinting at what appeared to be security failures that led to the incident.
“We will need to study the incident and draw conclusions in order to prevent similar incidents in the future — it is our responsibility and we will do so appropriately,” he told the troops during the Sunday afternoon visit.
Sgt. Noa Lazar, 18, a member of the Military Police’s Erez battalion, was shot late Saturday along with a civilian guard when a gunman opened fire at a checkpoint near the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem on Saturday night. The guard was hospitalized in serious condition.
Lazar was declared dead after being rushed to the hospital following the attack, in which the gunman appeared to open fire on a group of soldiers from nearly point-blank range.
Video released Sunday appeared to show the gunman casually getting out of a white vehicle at the checkpoint and walking over to a group of soldiers and guards before opening fire with a handgun. The video shows two soldiers fall, the others dive for cover.
The gunman is seen continuing to shoot at one person on the ground before fleeing, apparently after his gun jammed.
According to a report by the Ynet news site, an initial investigation into the incident found that the gunman had shot eight bullets from point-blank range toward a group of soldiers at the checkpoint, without any of the personnel on-site managing to fire back and hit him.
The initial investigation found that the shooting took place just as soldiers were switching shifts, considered a tactical weak point at any checkpoint and requires increased security.
The incident is expected to lead to the dismissal of some of the commanders on the scene, Ynet reported.
Four individuals suspected of aiding in the shooting attack were arrested overnight, and were ordered to remain in custody until at least October 16 as the investigation continues, a police statement said.
The mother, father and brother of the suspect have also been detained, according to Hebrew media reports.
Police said the alleged Shuafat gunman, a 22-year-old Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem, was driven to the checkpoint by an accomplice who also eluded capture.
“The vehicle [that dropped off the assailant] continued until the driver abandoned it and escaped to the other direction to an area close to the Shuafat refugee camp, where he is most likely to have escaped to,” Barlev told Kan.
The shooting came amid spiraling violence and increased tensions in the West Bank.
Hours earlier, two Palestinian teenagers were shot dead in an Israeli raid in the West Bank, as the United Nations warned that “mounting violence” in the territory was “fueling a climate of fear, hatred and anger.”
The shooting came a day before the start of the Sukkot holiday. Israel had planned on limiting West Bank closures on Palestinian movement usually imposed during the holiday to just the first and last day of Sukkot, but Barlev told Army Radio that security officials could meet Monday night to discuss extending the cordon.
He told Kan that Israel was “doing the maximum to avoid a military campaign in the West Bank,” but noted that the recent flareup may force Israel to take a more decisive action.
“We’re nearing a military operation. We’re not there yet. We need to continue examining the situation and to make decisions accordingly,” Barlev said.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.
