Two Police officers, Three Israeli-Arab Terrorists Dead in Temple Mount Shooting

Two Israeli Police officers were killed Friday and one lightly injured when three terrorists opened fire near the Lions Gate of the Old City in Jerusalem. Police shot dead the three terrorists, Israeli citizens and residents of the town of  Umm al-Fahm.

The three were named by police as Ahmed Mohammed Jabarin, 29; Mohammed Hamed Abed Alatif Jabarin, 19; and Mohamed Ahmed Mafdal Jabarin, 19. The three are not known to have any previous security background.

The two police officers were named as were named as Camil Shanan, 22,  from the Druze village of Hurfeish and Ha’il Satawi, 30, from the Druze village of Majar.

The incident began shortly after 7:00 am when the men exited the Temple Mount and shot at a group of Israelis. Police shot at the attackers as they tried to flee back onto the Mount in order to hide in the mosques. Improvised Carl Gustav submachine guns, a pistol and a knife were found on the terrorists.

Video footage from the scene shows one of the terrorists lying on the ground and thought to be dead, suddenly tried to get up and shoot at police who shot back and killed him. Police said the incident occurred as a bomb-disposal officer was checking to see if there were explosives on the body.

Magen David Adom paramedic Aharon Adler, who was lightly wounded in the incident, told TPS: “While I was administering life-saving CPR to one of the wounded, one of the terrorists, who was thought to be neutralized got up on his feet and tried to attack again. At that point one of the police officers shot and killed the assailant. From that shooting a ricochet hit my legs. My injury wasn’t critical and I continued my work treating the critically wounded.”

Police Chief Roni Elsheikh described the attack as an “exceptionally serious” incident. “Shooting on the Temple Mount is extremely serious and sensitive, and has international and diplomatic ramifications,” Elsheikh said.

Jerusalem police closed all gates to the Temple Mount and cleared the Temple Mount plaza. Friday prayers have been cancelled.

As yet, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, however a spokesman for Hamas called it a “natural reaction to Israeli terror and to the defiling of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The attack shows that the intifada continues and that our people are united behind the resistance.”

Speaking to TPS following the attack, MK Moti Yogev (Jewish Home) said “For us the Temple Mount is a house of prayer for all peoples. For them, it is a base for terror and hatred. The Temple Mount should be closed to Muslims for an extended period. The Temple Mount is in our hands should not be just a slogan, it should be the reality on the ground.”

MK Yehuda Glick, a licensed tour guide and noted activist for Jewish prayer rights on the Mount, added a call to “hunt down” the terrorists and to hit them with a disproportionate response. “We need to take a Zionist response, including construction throughout Jerusalem and opening the Temple Mount to Jews for additional hours in the day.

“We must not give terrorism even the slightest achievement,” Glick told TPS.

First responders at the scene said they heard the shots and responded to the attack in real time.

Nidal Seder, a United Hatzalah volunteer who lives near the Temple Mount and was the first responder to arrive at the scene reported, said “I heard the gunshots on the Temple Mount from my window. I jumped on my ambucycle and at the behest of the police officers rushed into the Temple Mount complex where I performed CPR on one of the injured people near the mosque. I was joined by members of the Red Crescent, police officers and other EMS volunteers who rushed to the site. We were told that other volunteers had begun CPR on a second victim and that there were two other people that sustained light injuries.”

A second United Hatzalah volunteer, Yehiel Stern, told TPS at the scene that at 7:10 he received an emergency call and arrived at the scene within a minute, said he treated wounded people inside the Dome of the Rock, an area where Jews do not normally enter.

“I heard a gun battle and someone was injured lightly by shrapnel. Ambulances then arrived and we sent the wounded to Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital,” he said.