ISRAEL-PALESTINE VIOLENCE SPIRALS WITH SHOOTINGS

JERUSALEM—A 13-year-old Palestinian boy shot and wounded a father and son in east Jerusalem on Saturday hours after a gunman killed seven outside a synagogue, in one of the deadliest such attacks in years.

The two shootings marked another dramatic escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and defied global calls for calm.

Police said the latest gun attack occurred on Saturday morning in Silwan just outside the old, walled city in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

A father, 47, and his 23-yearold son sustained gunshot wounds to their upper bodies and were rushed to hospital, police and medics said.

Police had earlier announced the arrest of 42 people in connection with Friday’s synagogue attack.

Rising tensions

The mass shooting was carried out by a 21-year-old Palestinian resident of east Jerusalem who drove up to the synagogue in the Neve Yaakov neighborhood and opened fire during the Jewish Sabbath, and on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The attack came with tensions rising across the region a day after one of the deadliest army raids in the occupied West Bank in roughly two decades, as well as rocket fire from militants in the Gaza Strip and Israeli retaliatory air strikes.

Crowds shouted “Death to Arabs” as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toured the scene of the synagogue attack late Friday.

Reactions

Palestinians held spontaneous rallies to celebrate the killings in Gaza and across the West Bank, including in Ramallah where large crowds swarmed the streets chanting and waving Palestinian flags.

Israel’s Police chief Kobi Shabtai called the synagogue shooting “one of the worst attacks (Israel) has encountered in recent years.”

Several Arab nations that have ties with Israel—including Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates—condemned Friday night’s shooting.

But the Lebanese Hezbollah voiced “absolute support for all the steps taken by the Palestinian resistance factions.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said a “spiral of violence must be avoided at all costs.”