Yom Shabbat
Saturday
6 Shvat 5783
January 28 2023
Special Notice
Regular readers of OneIsrael know that we do not publish a blog on Shabbat unless circumstances warrant. Unfortunately, today is one of those exceptions.
Some of the dead on the sidewalk.
The sequence of events last night:
1. At 8:15 pm, a terrorist arrived by car outside the synagogue on Neve Ya’akov Street in Jerusalem.
2. He shot 10 worshipers as they left the building.
3. He then fled the scene in his car. Five minutes later he was spotted by Jerusalem Police.
4. Apparently he opened fire on the police, who returned fire killing him.
Five people were pronounced dead at the scene; 2 more died at the hospital. Another person (a 15 year old boy) is in critical condition after surgery. Two others are in “moderate” condition with gunshot wounds.
What do we know this morning?
The terrorist was a 21-year-old resident of the Shuafat neighborhood of eastern Jerusalem who apparently was a member of the PLO’s Fatah terror organization (“apparently” because Hamas has taken credit for the massacre).
The terrorist obviously targeted “Jews”; hence, his choice of target.
Following the attack, Minister of National Security Ben Gvir and PM Netanyahu came to the scene.
Netanyahu outside the synagogue last night.
Shortly thereafter, PM Netanyahu issued this statement:
“We are after one of the most difficult events that we have known about in recent years. We wish the injured a speedy recovery. I want to praise the police officers who acted with extraordinary resourcefulness. They arrived within minutes. Sometimes even minutes are too late. I convened a situation assessment to carry out quick actions. We need to act decisively and calmly. I call on people not to take the law into their own hands. For this purpose there is an army and police, security forces. They will act according to the instructions of the cabinet , we decided on immediate steps and a cabinet meeting will be held tomorrow.”
Reportedly, one of the first actions being taken is the reinforcement of soldiers in Judea and Samaria. Other steps should become clearer today.
A few other photographs:
Happy crowds celebrating the massacre in Gaza last night with fireworks.
Meanwhile over in Jordan:
Jordanians handed out sweets in multiple locations near the Israeli embassy in Amman to celebrate.
One final item. Following the massacre last night, a call went out to postpone the demonstrations against the government scheduled for tonight around Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv. Instead, this tweet went out under the name of the leftist Peace Now organization:
“Hello now: when chaos and land burning are the working plan of a criminal government then innocent citizens pay the heaviest price. Pain with the families of the victims. Gearing up tomorrow in Kaplan against the bloody government.”
Can you believe it? Of course you can.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.