Two men were injured in what Israeli police say was an alleged “terrorist attack” that took place near the tomb of Shimon Hatzadik in East Jerusalem early on Tuesday.
A police statement said the force had received a report of a shooting at a vehicle in the Shimon Hatzadik area, which is in East Jerusalem, where tensions between Palestinians and Jewish settlers have risen in recent years.
The Tomb of Shimon Hatzadik is a revered holy site in Judaism located in the predominantly Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem.
Two people were “moderately injured”, according to medical officials, and were transferred for further medical treatment, the police statement added.
“Police and Border Police agents are at the scene searching for the suspect who fled the scene,” he continued.
In an accompanying statement, police said forces located a “Carlo”-style submachine gun near the scene of the shooting.
According to a spokesman for the Magen David Adom (MDA) rescue service, one of the two injured was a 50-year-old man, who was sent to Shaare Tzedek Hospital. The other hit, a 48-year-old man, is at Hadassah Mt. Scopus.
The attack comes amid escalating violence between Israelis and Palestinians. Last year was the deadliest for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and for Israelis in nearly two decades, and this year is set to get worse.

Tensions rose during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which this year coincided with the Jewish Passover holiday, after Israeli police twice raided Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque, whose complex is also known as the Temple Mount – a one of the most revered places in Islam and Judaism. Israeli police arrested hundreds of people accused of barricading themselves inside the mosque and throwing fireworks and rocks, leading to widespread condemnation from the Arab and Muslim world.
The compound and neighborhood where Tuesday’s shooting took place is in East Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as the capital of their future state and which most of the international community considers Israeli-occupied territory. Israel captured it from Jordan in the Six Day War in 1967 and regards East and West Jerusalem as its united “eternal capital”.
(In collaboration with CNN’s Salma Abdelaziz and Abeer Salman)
Source: CNN Brasil

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