AP / April 18, 2023
JERUSALEM – A Palestinian gunman shot and wounded two Israelis in Jerusalem on Tuesday, police said, the latest bloodshed in a year-long cycle of violence that shows no sign of abating.
The shooting comes after weeks of heightened tensions around Jerusalem during the overlap earlier this month of the Jewish holiday of Passover and the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Israeli police were searching for the suspected attacker who fled the scene in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. The two wounded, who were shot while inside a vehicle, were treated for moderate gunshot wounds.
Tensions in Israel and the occupied West Bank soared after an Israeli police raid on Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, the compound home to Al-Aqsa Mosque. The mosque sits on a hilltop compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, revered as the third-holiest site in Islam and the holiest site in Judaism.
Earlier in April, the Israeli military struck sites linked to the Palestinian group Hamas in southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip after militants from there fired salvos of rockets at Israel.
Palestinian attacks against Israelis have killed at least 20 people, including one soldier, since the start of the year. At least 92 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire so far this year, according to a tally by The Associated Press. At least half of them were affiliated with militant groups.
