Tensions rise after gun attack in settlement leaves 3 Israelis dead

A Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli security forces in an illegal settlement outside Jerusalem on Tuesday after a gun attack in which three people died.
Israeli police said Nimr Al-Jamal, 37, a father of four children from the nearby village of Beit Surik, arrived at a rear entrance to the Har Adar settlement at about 7 a.m. as security guards were opening a gate to admit Palestinian laborers with permits.
When security guards became suspicious, Al-Jamal pulled out a pistol hidden under his shirt and opened fire, fatally wounding three Israelis — a policeman and two security guards — before he was shot and killed.
Israeli security services said Al-Jamal had “significant personal and family problems, including those regarding family violence” and that his wife had left for Jordan several weeks ago.
Al-Jamal held a work permit for the settlements, which are issued only after security vetting.
Shay Retter, the head of Har Adar’s security committee, said between 100 and 150 Palestinian laborers entered the settlement each day to work.
At the scene of the attack, Mosheer Abu Qatish, a paramedic volunteer from the neighboring Palestinian-Israeli town of Abu Gosh, treated wounded victims. “Unfortunately, the three more seriously injured people were pronounced dead at the scene,” he told the Jerusalem Post.
“A fourth injured person was treated at the scene before he was transported to hospital.”
Fatah official Munir Al-Jaghoub told Arab News: “Israel alone is responsible for Palestinian reactions to the crimes of the occupation, and if it continues its aggression against the Palestinian people.”
Israel, he said, “must be well aware of the consequences of its continued push toward violence, the policy of house demolitions, the forced displacement of Jerusalemites, and the successive incursions of settlers to Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.”
Hamas spokesman Hazim Qasem said the attack was “a new chapter of Al-Quds intifada and that is affirming from youth to continue the fighting until full freedom of people and land.”
A wave of unrest that broke out two years ago has largely subsided in recent months. Since October 2015, at least 295 Palestinians or Arab Israelis, 50 Israelis, two Americans, two Jordanians, an Eritrean, a Sudanese and a Briton have been killed.
Israeli authorities say that most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks. Others were shot dead in protests and clashes, while some were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.
Palestinians say the daily frustration and routine military violence imposed by Israel’s nearly half-century occupation of the Palestinian territory are the main drivers behind the attacks.