This terrorist attack, which was likely retaliation for last weekend's incursion into Gaza, was the first in Jerusalem since early 2004. It is not going to help those peace talks that ostensibly were about to resume.Magen David Adom have confirmed 10 wounded civilians, including three seriously. One terrorist was said to have been killed by a student.
Witnesses said that only one terrorist had entered the building and that he managed to fire 500-600 bullets over the course of 4-10 minutes before he was killed.
Although witnesses said only a single terrorist carried out the attack, police were searching the building for an additional terrorist, preventing the entrance of rescue workers. Later Police Chief David Cohen confirmed that there were no additional attackers.
The terrorist entered the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva in the neighborhood of Kiryat Moshe carrying weapons. He was not wearing a suicide-bomb belt as earlier reported.
The gunman entered the library where about 80 people were gathered, witnesses said, and opened fire.
Yitzhak Dadon, a student, said he was armed with a rifle and waited on the roof of a nearby building. "He came out of the library spraying automatic fire ... the terrorist came to the entrance and I shot him twice in the head," he said.
Approximately 50 ambulances were sent to the scene and a 16-year-old boy in serious condition and suffering from chest wounds was seen being evacuated from the scene.
"It's very sad tonight in Jerusalem - many people were killed in the heart of Jerusalem," Mayor Uri Lupolianski told Channel 2,
"We bless the (Jerusalem) operation. It will not be the last," Hamas said in a statement.
(Photo: AP)
3 comments:
It is always deplorable when innocents are killed but this has gotten far more coverage in the American press than the mass slaughter of innocents (in the neighborhood of 100 with many civilians and children) by IDF forces in Gaza.
Israeli leadership has even declared that a "shoah" (holocaust) is about to befall the Palestinians. The double standard is clear yet the media goes along with it.
Hi there. In response to the "shoa" comment, the Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said that the Palestenians in Gaza are bringing upon themselves an even greater "shoah" (by firing qassam rockets) because Israel will do all it can to defend itself. While shoah can and often does mean holocaust, it also means disaster and most native Hebrew speakers agree that Vilnai was using the word in this way. It was clearly, however, a poor choice of words on his part since it is a very loaded word.
There are no "innocents" in this war or any other. The precedent of civilians being a legitamate military target was made soem years ago. The names, of such cities as Rotterdam, Liverpool, Coventry, London, Hamburg, Cologne, Berlin, Dresden, Hanoi,etc are testament to that unfortunate fact of history. The people of Gaza are no less responsible for the acts of those militants who fire Kaytushas into Israeli civilain population centers from within their midst than Mercaz Ha Rav students who were buying into and occasionally acting upon the theo-facism being spewed out by seditionist rabbis. As to double standards. I have read your prose elsewhere, Lance. If theres anybody who's an expert on double standards and their uses, it would certainly be you. I defer to your obvious expertise when it comes to claptrap and self-serving duplicity.
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