No fewer than seven people were killed on Friday following a shooting outside a synagogue in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem with the gunman killed at the scene, police and medics have confirmed.
A statement from the police which was obtained by Africa Today News, New York read; ‘Earlier this evening at around 8:30 pm (1830 GMT), a terrorist arrived at a synagogue in the Neve Yaakov boulevard in Jerusalem and proceeded to shoot at a number of people in the area’.
‘Police forces quickly arrived at the scene, engaged with the terrorist, and opened fire at him. The terrorist was neutralised,’ it added.
A police spokesman told reporters that seven people had been killed.
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Police were dismantling a white vehicle at the scene, believed to have belonged to the shooter.
Fadi Dekidek, a paramedic with the Magen David Adom emergency response agency, said “this is a very serious terror attack.’
The MDA reported a total of 10 gunshot victims, including a 70-year-old man and a 14-year-old boy.
“I heard a lot of bullets,” Matanel Almalem, an 18-year-old student who lives near the synagogue, told reporters at the scene.
In another report, Australia has announced that it will henceforth no longer recognise West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, reversing a decision taken by the government of former Prime Minister Scott Morrison sometime in 2018.
In a statement on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said; ‘Today the Government has reaffirmed Australia’s previous and longstanding position that Jerusalem is a final status issue that should be resolved as part of any peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian people’.
‘This reverses the Morrison Government’s recognition of West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.’
Wong reiterated that Australia’s embassy would remain in Tel Aviv and that Canberra was committed to a two-state solution “in which Israel and a future Palestinian state coexist, in peace and security, within internationally recognised borders”.