The US government offered its help to Israel on Friday to bring to justice the perpetrators of the attack against a synagogue in an Israeli settlement located in occupied East Jerusalem, where seven people died.
US President Joe Biden ordered his national security team to contact his Israeli interlocutors to offer “all appropriate support” to care for the injured and “bring the perpetrators of this horrible crime to justice.” said White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre.
“USA. will extend all its support to the Government and the people of Israel,” Jean-Pierre said in a statement, where he condemned the “heinous terrorist attack that took place tonight in a synagogue in Jerusalem,” which coincided with the International Day of Remembrance for the Holocaust victims.
Seven people were shot dead in an armed attack on a synagogue in a Jewish settlement in occupied east Jerusalem on Friday, an attack that was staged by Palestinian militias as revenge for the killing of 10 Palestinians by Israeli forces on Thursday.
Looking for other possible suspects
The attack, in a Jewish settlement neighborhood in the Jerusalem sector annexed by Israel, occurred a few hours after an Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, in response to rocket fire from that Palestinian enclave.
“Tonight around 8:30 pm, a terrorist approached a synagogue on Neve Yaakov Avenue in Jerusalem and opened fire on people in the area,” a police statement said.
“Police forces quickly arrived at the scene, confronted the terrorist” and he “was neutralized,” he added.
The attacker arrived by car at a building used as a synagogue, opened fire and tried to flee, while the authorities seized a pistol, apparently the one used in the attack, according to local media, which ensures that the police were looking for other possible suspects who might have helped the gunman.