(Bloomberg) -- A Palestinian gunman killed three Israelis at a West Bank settlement near Jerusalem after approaching an entrance gate with a group of day laborers, police said.
After being told to halt, the 37-year-old assailant took out a pistol and started shooting, killing two guards and a border policeman and seriously injuring a fourth Israeli, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a text message. Israeli security services identified the assailant as Nimr Mahmoud Ahmed Jamal, a father of four, who had a permit to work in the Har Adar settlement.
The attack comes a week after U.S. President Donald Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas and said negotiators had a “good chance” of reaching a peace agreement.
Blaming Incitement
Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said anti-Israel incitement by the Palestinian Authority was partly to blame for the attack. Jamal's home will be destroyed and work permits for his extended family will be canceled, Netanyahu said in comments conveyed by text message.
President Reuven Rivlin called the incident “a brutal terror attack” and said Israel would continue “to confront terror, and will reach all its perpetrators and supporters.” Crossings from Palestinian villages near Har Adar would be restricted to humanitarian purposes, an army spokeswoman said.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad praised the attack, saying the violence was in response to Israeli measures at Jerusalem's Temple Mount, which houses the al-Aqsa mosque and is also the holiest site in Judaism. There were tensions at the site in July when Israel installed metal detectors and security cameras after an Arab man shot dead two Israeli policemen there. The surveillance equipment later was removed.
--With assistance from Saud Abu Ramadan
To contact the reporters on this story: Michael S. Arnold in Tel Aviv at marnold48@bloomberg.net, Jonathan Ferziger in Tel Aviv at jferziger@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, Gwen Ackerman, Alisa Odenheimer
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