TEL AVIV — Two Israeli Border Police Officers were murdered and a third was wounded on Friday when three Palestinian terrorists opened fire at security forces near an entrance to the Temple Mount and fled onto the mount complex.

The Palestinian assailants, reportedly carrying two rifles and a pistol, were pursued by Israeli forces and were shot and killed as they tried to escape toward the mosques on the Temple Mount. The mount is the holiest site in Judaism.

The terrorists reportedly had come from the Temple Mount and were walking toward the Lions Gate exit when they started to attack Israeli officers near the gate before attempting to flee back onto the mount. It was not immediately clear how the weapons were smuggled onto the mount. Visitors to the site must first pass through a security check with metal detectors.

One dramatic video (see top) that has been posted by the news media here shows one of the terrorists lying on the ground before leaping up and attempting to attack the pursuing officers. The terrorist can be heard shouting “Allahu Akbar” (or “Allah is great”) amid a hail of gunfire.

Other videos were posted on Twitter and YouTube:

The two murdered police officers were identified as 30-year-old Advanced Staff Sgt. Maj. Hael Sathawi, and 22-year-old Advanced Staff Sgt. Maj. Kamil Shanan. Both resided in mostly Druze villages in northern Israel.

The three terrorists were reportedly Israeli Arabs from the northern town of Umm al-Fahm, which is known as a hotbed of Islamic radical extremism. The three reportedly had no prior arrest records.

“This was a tough morning for the police,” said Israel Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich. “We have two people killed, officers, who paid the dearest price in this battle.”

In a highly unusual move, Israel cancelled Friday prayers on the Temple Mount due to the ongoing security situation. Mount preachers are notorious for using Friday night sermons to incite against Israel – especially with false claims of Israeli threats to the Al Aqsa Mosque – and there is fear here that the services could have been used to instigate further violence on the mount.

Friday’s attack comes less than two weeks after the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) passed an anti-Israel resolution declaring Jerusalem’s Old City and its ancient walls to be “occupied” sites and listed the areas as Palestinian heritage sites in “danger.”

And the terrorist attack comes one week after UNESCO passed another anti-Israel resolution regarding the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron – considered the second holiest site in Judaism after the Temple Mount – claiming the tomb is a “Palestinian” world heritage site in danger.

Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook. </s> JERUSALEM, Israel – An early morning terror attack Friday at the Lion's Gate near the entrance to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City fatally injured two Israeli police officers. A third officer sustained moderate wounds from shrapnel.

The critically injured officers were evacuated to Hadassah Hospital Mt. Scopus, where they succumbed to their injuries. The third officer was taken to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center for treatment.

Preliminary reports indicate the three terrorists, all held Israeli identity cards, walked from the Temple Mount to the Lion's Gate where they opened fired on Isaeli security personnel in the area before attempting to flee back to the Temple Mount.

Police later confirmed the three were from the Israeli Arab city of Umm al-Fahm in the north, where residents hold Israeli identity cards, enabling them to move freely throughout the country like any citizen.

Security forces pursued the terrorists and returned fire, neutralizing the terrorists, confiscating two Karl Gustav rifles and a pistol, and sealing off the area, thereby preventing Muslim's traditional Friday prayer at the site.

In addition to the Lion's Gate, Israel Police Chief police also sealed entrance to the Old City at the Jaffa and Zion gates.

"Security assessments [are] being carried out by police officers and police commissioner. Heighten security continues in the area. The Temple Mount will remain closed throughout the day," Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said in a statement.

One month ago, Border Police Staff Sgt. Hadas Malka, 23, was killed in a similar terror attack outside the Damascus Gate. According to police reports, two of the attackers opened fire on police while a third stabbed the policewoman. </s> Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The attackers were shot dead after being pursued into the sacred compound

Two Israeli policemen have been killed and a third wounded in a shooting attack near a sacred site in Jerusalem.

They were shot by three Israeli Arabs close to the compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary).

Police chased the attackers into the site and shot them dead.

There has been a wave of stabbings, shootings and car-rammings of Israelis predominantly by Palestinians or Israeli Arabs since late 2015.

Two of the previous attackers were Jordanians.

Image copyright Israel Foreign Ministry Image caption Sgt Maj Hail Sattawi (left) and Sgt Maj Kamil Shanan died of their wounds

Image caption Identity cards, believed to belong to the attackers, were pictured at the site

Police say the three men who carried out Friday's attack were aged between 19 and 29 and came from the northern Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm. Israel's Shin Bet security agency said that they were not previously known to the security services.

Police say the gunmen opened fire as they made their way from the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif towards Lions' Gate, an opening in the Old City walls about 100ft (30 metres) away.

The attackers were then pursued back to the compound, where they were killed.

Mobile phone footage showed at least one of the attackers in a confrontation with members of the security forces in the holy site before being shot.

The two policemen who died of their injuries in hospital were named as Advanced Staff Sergeant Major Kamil Shanan, aged 22, and Advanced Staff Sergeant Major Hail Sattawi, who was 30. They were Druze from Israel's northern Galilee region.

Analysis: Heightened tensions

Tom Bateman, BBC's Jerusalem correspondent

The Old City has often been a flashpoint in the conflict, which since the autumn of 2015 has seen an increase in violence involving attacks often carried out by lone individuals.

But an attack with guns by multiple assailants in the vicinity of the heavily guarded holy site, a very sensitive location, is highly unusual in recent times.

And the confirmation from Israel's security agency that the attackers were Israeli Arab citizens of Umm Al Fahm, and not previously known to the authorities, will also cause concern about the ability of Israel to prevent such incidents.

For the Israeli government, the event has crossed "red lines" and there will be fears of an increase in tensions following the severity of the attack and the rare decision to close the site.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was "a sad day in which our Druze brothers pay the heaviest price in our joint mission to protect the security of our country. I salute them and their heroism".

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack in a phone call to Mr Netanyahu, the prime minister's office said.

Mr Netanyahu has previously accused the Palestinian leader of failing to denounce such attacks.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Worshippers held Friday prayers outside Lions' Gate after police shut the holy site

In the wake of the incident, police sealed off the site to search it for weapons. It is the first time in decades that the compound, which contains the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque, has been closed for Muslim Friday prayers, which normally draws thousands of worshippers.

The site is administered by an Islamic authority (Waqf), though Israel is in charge of security there. Police are investigating how the attackers managed to smuggle in a handgun, sub-machine gun and knife.

The Palestinian Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammad Hussein, who had urged worshippers to defy the closure, was detained by police, but later released.

His son said the cleric was not facing any charges over his call for Muslims to converge on Jerusalem.

Elsewhere, a Palestinian was shot dead in clashes with Israeli forces at a refugee camp near Bethlehem on Friday, Palestinian sources said.

Barra Hamamdeh, 21, was killed during a raid by troops on the Dheisheh camp, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.

'Severe event'

The Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif is the holiest site in Judaism and third holiest in Islam and is one of the most politically sensitive sacred places in the world.

It is located in East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel since the 1967 Middle East war. Israel considers the entire city its sovereign capital, while Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of their sought-after future state.

Image copyright AFP Image caption The attack happened despite heightened security around the Old City in Jerusalem

Israel's Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said the attack was "a serious and severe event in which red lines were crossed", adding that security arrangements in and around the site would be reviewed.

No group has said it was responsible, though the militant Palestinian Hamas movement, which runs the Gaza Strip, praised the attack as a "natural response to the Zionist ongoing crimes".

The shooting comes weeks after an Israeli policewoman was killed in a knife and gun attack outside the Old City by three Palestinians from the occupied West Bank.

Forty-four Israelis and five foreign nationals have been killed in nearly two years of such attacks.

At least 255 Palestinians - most of them attackers, Israel says - have also been killed in that period, news agencies report. Others have been killed in clashes with Israeli troops.

Israel says Palestinian incitement has fuelled the attacks. The Palestinian leadership has blamed frustration rooted in decades of Israeli occupation. </s> JERUSALEM — A police officer was killed in southern Israel on Wednesday in a suspected ramming attack ahead of protests against the demolition of Bedouin Arab homes, police said, but a police video raises questions about what exactly happened.

Police say 34-year-old Erez Levi was among police carrying out security for the demolition of 15 buildings in the Negev Desert village of Umm al-Hiran, where the nomadic Bedouin have built structures that Israel’s High Court ruled illegal. Levi was killed when police say the Bedouin man rammed his car into the officers.

The alleged assailant, 50-year-old Ya’akub Musa Abu Al-Qi’an, was shot and killed.

Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri says Abu Al-Qi’an was a member of the Islamist movement of southern Israel, and police are investigating possible links to ISIS. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacker may have been an ISIS sympathizer.

Levi was posthumously promoted to First Sergeant.

A video from a police helicopter shows a wide angle of the scene.

The police video, posted on YouTube by The Times of Israel, appears to show the driver slowly moving the car forward along a dirt road. A police officer can be seen in the video firing approximately three times. From the video, the shots appear to be in the direction of the car. Only after the shots were fired does the car accelerate and, seconds later, hit a group of police officers before the car turns sharply to the right.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said on Twitter that the shots were warning shots fired into the air.

“The car drove toward the officers, the officers called him to stop and when he continued, they fired into the air in order to stop the car. And then the driver sharply diverted the steering wheel and sped quickly in order to run over the group of police officers,” Erdan tweeted. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the incident is under investigation.

Adalah, a legal organization representing the Bedouin villagers, disputes the police version of events.

“Eyewitnesses have confirmed that Abu Al-Qi’an was trying to leave the village and lost control of his car only after police fired at him,” Adalah General Director Hassan Jabareen said.

Member of Knesset Ayman Odeh, leader of the Arab Joint List Party, was also injured in the demonstrations, he told Israel’s Army Radio.

“The police forces came, about 1,000 police officers, and attacked the people in Umm al-Hiran,” he said, in a characterization denied by police.

Umm al-Hiran has been the subject of a 13-year legal battle over the fate of the Bedouin village. Israel’s High Court ruled that the village could be demolished to make way for the construction of the Israeli city of Hiran. The Bedouins had lived in Umm al-Hiran for 60 years after they were initially removed from their native villages in 1948, Jabareen said.

Minister of Agriculture Uri Ariel told Israel’s Army Radio the government was negotiating with the Bedouin families until late Tuesday night, offering them replacement lots in the nearby village of Hura.

“We already developed a neighborhood [for the Bedouin families],” said Yair Maayan, CEO of the Bedouin Development and Settlement Authority in the Negev.

“We have there about 150 properties. That’s enough for all the families.”

Some 40 families have already moved from Umm al-Hiran to Hura, Maayan said, while the government continued negotiations with the other families to join them.

“Last night, they came here to sign on this contract to move to Hura, but they canceled it and they didn’t want to do it,” Maayan said.

Israeli authorities have carried out regular demolitions of Bedouin homes they say have been built illegally, according to Human Rights Watch. They say Israel fails to recognize Bedouin villages and makes it incredibly difficult for Bedouin to obtain building permits.

Maayan says, of the approximately 50,000 illegal Bedouin structures in Israel, approximately 70% will be legalized in their current locations over the next 5 to 7 years. Another 20% will be moved less than half a mile, while the remaining 10%, including Umm al-Hiran, will be moved to alternative locations.

The Bedouin make up around 200,000 people of Israel’s population of 8.6 million.

The incident follows a similar attack on January 8 in Jerusalem, when a Palestinian driver plowed a truck into a group of Israeli soldiers, killing four and injuring at least 10 others. </s> JERUSALEM (CBSNewYork) — Police in Israel say three gunmen opened fire near one of Jerusalem’s holiest sites on Friday, killing two officers.

The attackers were then killed by security forces.

The site is known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. It’s the holiest site in Judaism and the third-holiest in Islam.

The site has been a flashpoint for Israeli-Palestinian violence in the past. </s> Image copyright EPA Image caption Six other people were wounded in the attack

An Israeli civilian and a policeman have died after a Palestinian gunman opened fire from his car in an attack in East Jerusalem, Israeli police say.

Six other people were wounded in the attack that began at Ammunition Hill.

The gunman fired at a tram stop, then drove off. He stopped after a police pursuit and opened fire again, killing a policeman before being shot dead.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the "very fast, very determined action of the Israeli police".

The militant Islamist group Hamas praised the attack and said the gunman, Musbah Abu Sbaih, was one of its members.

Police said 39-year-old Abu Sbaih came from East Jerusalem.

The two people killed were identified as Levana Malihi, 60, and policeman Yosef Kirma.

Thirty-five Israelis been killed in a wave of knife, gun and car-ramming attacks by Palestinians or Israeli Arabs since October 2015.

More than 200 Palestinians - mostly attackers, Israel says - have also been killed in that period.

Israel says Palestinian incitement has fuelled the attacks. The Palestinian leadership has blamed frustration rooted in decades of Israeli occupation. </s> Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said three armed assailants, whom he identified as terrorists, targeted police units in the area. One tried to stab a police officer, he said.

All three attackers were shot and killed and the area has been closed off, according to Rosenfeld. The injured were taken to nearby hospitals.

"I can confirm that the two police officers who were previously in critical condition have died of their wounds in hospital," Rosenfeld said.

Rosenfeld said the attackers were "Israeli Arabs from Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel."

Police released images of what they said were the weapons used by the assailants, including a knife, a pistol and a homemade automatic firearm. Israeli police say these are the weapons that were used to carry out attack in Jerusalem Friday. The incident took place a little after 7 a.m. local time by the Lions' Gate in the Old City walls, next to what Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary and Jews call the Temple Mount. The area is home to the Western Wall -- which was part of the walls around the Second Jewish Temple and is one of the holiest place for Jews to pray -- and the Dome of the Rock, where Muslims believe the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven. There is currently a heavy police presence and the area remains closed for security assessments, Rosenfeld said. This means Muslims will not be able hold Friday prayers there, as the Al-Aqsa mosque compound is within the closed area. Worshipers at the Western Wall will likely not be affected, as it's further away from the incident. Fridays in Jerusalem are often a time of heightened security, as it's the holy day of the week for Muslims and Shabbat for Jews begins at sundown. Though shooting attacks are rare, stabbings and vehicle attacks in Jerusalem have been common in recent years. A 23-year-old policewoman died last month after she was stabbed in an attack near the city's Damascus Gate. The three assailants were shot and killed, police said. In January, a man plowed his truck into a crowd of soldiers , killing four and injuring 10. The militant Islamist group Hamas, which runs the Gaza strip, praised that attack but did not claim responsibility. </s> The attack began when a gunman opened fire from his vehicle on civilians at a light rail stop opposite the main police headquarters in Ammunition Hill, Israel Police foreign press spokesman Superintendent Micky Rosenfeld said.

Two of the victims, both women, were critically injured, with one later dying of her wounds at Mount Scopus Hospital.

The attacker fled in the direction of the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, with police giving chase on motorcycles, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.

When the attacker saw the officers in pursuit, he opened fire in their direction and police shot back, she said.

One officer was killed and another wounded in the shootout. The attacker, who has been identified as a 39-year-old Palestinian man from the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, was also killed, Rosenfeld said. Police described the shooting as a terrorist attack. Hamas praised the attack, but has not claimed responsibility. Rosenfeld said on Twitter that there was a heightened security presence in the area to prevent further potential attacks. </s> JERUSALEM (JTA) — Two people were killed and at least six injured when a Palestinian terrorist opened fire on a light rail stop in Jerusalem.

The attack mid-Sunday morning occurred at the Ammunition Hill station in northern Jerusalem, which is located next to the Jerusalem Police headquarters.

The assailant, a 39-year-old resident of eastern Jerusalem’s Silwan neighborhood, was shot and killed by police during a brief chase during which he shot other victims. The attacker reportedly had an Israeli identification card.

The dead victims have been identified as a 60-year-old woman and a 30-year-old police officer. At least two people were shot at the rail station, the rest were shot as the assailant drove his car from the station to the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

The Hamas terrorist organization called the “operation” in Jerusalem “heroic,” and said the attack is a “natural response to the occupation’s crimes and violations at the expense of our people and holy sites.”

The attack comes a year after the start of several months of attacks, including car ramming, stabbings and shootings, and at the start of the Jewish High Holiday season, where attacks often rise. The light rail station at Ammunition Hill has been the site of several car ramming and stabbing attacks in the last year.
Two Druze Israeli police officers are killed in an attack at Temple Mount in Jerusalem.