Two Israeli police officers who were shot yesterday when armed assailants opened fire in Jerusalem’s Old City have died from their wounds, authorities said.
Police confirmed the deaths, with the three Arab Israeli attackers also shot dead by security forces after fleeing to a sensitive holy site in Jerusalem’s Old City.
The two officers died in hospital, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
The incident was among the most serious in recent years in Jerusalem and was likely to heighten Israeli-Palestinian tensions.
No details were immediately available on the identity of the attackers.
They were killed at the site known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount, the location of regular clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police, but gunfire rarely occurs there.
The site includes the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.
A number of attacks have occurred in Jerusalem’s Old City in the past few months, but they have often involved knives.
Police locked down the area and the al-Aqsa compound at the holy site was closed for Friday prayers. Gates leading to the site were sealed off.
Video being shared on social media appeared to show gunshots ringing out at the holy site.
“I was standing here and then I heard the shooting. I thought it was fireworks, but then I saw the police coming from everywhere,” said Basem Badawi, a 60-year-old water seller in the Old City.
Haram al-Sharif and Temple Mount is deemed the third-holiest site in Islam and the most sacred in Judaism.
It is central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with Palestinians fearing Israel might seek to assert further control over it.
It is located in east Jerusalem, occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed in a move never recognized by the international community.
Jews are allowed to visit, but not pray there.
The site is administered by the Islamic Waqf organization.
Waqf officials said its guards at the compound had been detained by Israeli police following the attack.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday said the compound was shut to make sure there are no weapons there.
He said that the status quo governing the site “will be preserved.”
Additional reporting by AP
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