Just Friday, UK Home Secretary Priti Patel announced the UK’s decision to designate the entirety of Hamas as a terror organization and outlaw support for the group. Until then, only the terror group’s military wing was designated as such, with the political leadership remaining technically in the clear. This follows news that the Australian government is considering doing the same.
Today, we received a bloody reminder as to why this is absolutely the right decision.
A Hamas gunman opened fire in the alleyways of Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday morning, killing one Israeli man and wounding four others, two of them seriously, Israeli officials said.
Police officers at the scene opened fire at the terrorist, a 42-year-old Palestinian man from East Jerusalem, and killed him, according to police.
Hamas hailed the attack, calling it a “heroic operation,” and identified the terrorist as a member of the organization, Fadi Abu Shkhaydam, a Hamas leader in the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem, where he lived.
According to police, Abu Shkhaydam entered the Old City armed with a Beretta M12 submachine gun and opened fire at three Israeli men who were walking through the area, near the Chain Gate entrance to the Temple Mount, fatally wounding one of them and seriously injuring the other two.
Two female police officers rushed to the scene from one side of the alleyway, opening fire at Shkaydam. Shortly thereafter, two male officers ran in to assist them.
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The three Israeli men who were shot in the attack were walking through the area as they left the nearby Western Wall, where they had been praying, still wrapped in prayer shawls and wearing tefillin, one of the victims said, speaking from his hospital bed.
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“The terrorist was a member of Hamas’s political branch who regularly prayed in the Old City. His wife fled abroad three days ago, and he used standard weapons that are not commonly available in Israel,” Barlev said in remarks at the scene of the attack.
Note also how the terrorist shot at civilians in religious garb. He was not aiming at IDF soldiers or border police, as many haters will claim. This was premeditated murder of civilians, plain and simple.
Update: The victims were:
- Eliyahu David Kaye (killed): a new South African immigrant to Israel, working as a guide at the Western Wall Tunnels, who was due to be married soon .
- Rabbi Aharon Yehuda ben Tova who is in critical condition
- Rabbi Zeevi Katzenelbogen who is in stable condition and was shot in the arm where the bullet exited his Tefillin
Update: The terrorist worked at the Rashidiya school, an Israeli school under the responsibility of the Israeli Ministry of Education.
