A Palestinian sniper from the Hamas militant group killed an Israeli and wounded three others in the old city of Jerusalem on Sunday before being killed by police, officials said.
The incident, which was the second attack on Jerusalem in four days, took place near one of the gates of the Al-Aqsa mosque complex, the third holiest site in Islam and a known point of tension in the region. Jews revere the site as the area where two ancient temples once stood.
Hamas has identified the sniper as one of its leaders in East Jerusalem, one of the areas the Palestinians claim.
Unlike the Palestinian National Authority, which is more moderate, Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, refuses to accept permanent coexistence with Israel.
Sunday’s attack also injured another civilian and two Israeli police, police said. The dead civilian was identified as a newly arrived Jewish immigrant from South Africa.
Israel captured the old city and other parts of East Jerusalem in the 1967 war and annexed them as its capital, in a move that is not internationally recognized.
(By Rami Ayyub, Dan Williams, Nisreen Salem and Nidal al-Mughrabi)
