Israeli police yesterday shot dead a 32-year-old Palestinian man suspected of having tried hours earlier to kill a far-right Jewish activist, leading to fierce clashes in East Jerusalem and fears of a new Palestinian uprising.
The Al-Aqsa compound, or Temple Mount, a holy site at the heart of the violence, was shut down for almost an entire day to all visitors as a security precaution.
It was the first full closure of the site, venerated by both Jews and Muslims, in 14 years. Later yesterday Israeli police reopened the complex.
Suspect was released from Israeli prison in 2012 after serving 11 years
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced Israel’s actions as “tantamount to a declaration of war” and his Fatah party called for a “day of rage” today. It was not clear if Al Aqsa would be opened to Muslims on their holy day.
Moataz Hejazi’s body lay in blood among satellite dishes and a solar panel on the rooftop of a three-storey house in Abu Tor, a district of Arab East Jerusalem, as Israeli forces sealed off the area and repelled stone-throwing Palestinian protesters.
Hejazi was suspected of shooting and wounding Yehuda Glick, a far-right religious activist who has campaigned for Jews to be allowed to pray at the Al-Aqsa compound.
Glick, a US-born settler, was shot as he left a conference at the Menachem Begin Heritage Centre in Jerusalem late on Wednesday. His assailant escaped on the back of a motorcycle. A spokesman for the centre said Hejazi had worked at a restaurant there. Glick, 48, remains in serious but stable condition with four gunshot wounds, doctors said.
Residents said hundreds of Israeli police were involved in the pre-dawn search for Hejazi. He was tracked down to his family home in the hilly backstreets of Abu Tor and eventually cornered on the terrace of an adjacent building.
“Anti-terrorist police units surrounded a house in the Abu Tor neighbourhood to arrest a suspect in the attempted assassination of Yehuda Glick,” Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. “Immediately upon arrival they were shot at. They returned fire and shot and killed the suspect.”
Locals identified the man as Hejazi, who was released from an Israeli prison in 2012 after serving 11 years. Israeli police fired stun grenades to keep back groups of angry residents, who shouted abuse as they watched from surrounding balconies.
One Abu Tor resident, an elderly Arab man with a walking stick who declined to be named, described Hejazi as a troublemaker and said “he should have been shot 10 years ago”. Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two militant groups, praised the shooting of Glick and mourned Hejazi’s death.
East Jerusalem, which Israel captured and occupied in the 1967 Middle East war, has been a source of intense friction in recent months, especially around Silwan, which sits in the shadow of the Old City and Al-Aqsa.