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School killings stun Israel

DUBAI: A Palestinian gunman has killed eight students and wounded at least nine inside a prominent Jewish seminary in Jerusalem.

The religious school, Merkaz Harav Yeshiva, has been the intellectual nerve-centre of the Israeli settler movement inside the West Bank — the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 war. Many of its students combine religious studies with participation as combatants in the Army.

The attack on Thursday night by the gunman identified as Ala Abu Dhaim follows the recent Israel incursion inside Gaza’s Jabaliya refugee camp. At least 120 Palestinians were killed in this assault. It also comes after the assassination of a top commander of the Lebanese Hizbollah, Imad Mughniyeh, in Damascus last month.

Abu Dhaim, who worked as a driver, apparently entered the library of the West Jerusalem seminary, where around 80 students were present.

Witnesses said he fired an AK-47 rifle for several minutes, before Israeli security killed him. Following the attack, Al Manar television, run by Hizbollah said a previously unknown group called “Free Men of Galilee Brigade — Groups of the Martyr Imad Moghniyeh and Martyrs of Gaza,” had claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Palestinian militant group, Hamas, described the attack as “heroic” as hundreds supporting the action poured into the streets of Gaza City.

Palestinians commending the strike also stepped out in large numbers in Jabaliya, the nucleus of the five day Israeli incursion.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the group “blesses the heroic operation in Jerusalem, which was a natural reaction to the Zionist massacre.” Another spokesman, Taher al-Nunu, said “we have warned before about the responsibility of the escalation in Gaza and warned of Palestinian anger.”

In Israel, thousands gathered at the seminary, some of them weeping, as a rabbi recited prayers for the dead. After the funeral, the seminarians gathered outside the library and called for revenge, shouting, “Death to Arabs,” the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

Israeli army has blocked the entry and exit from the West Bank and Gaza after the attack.

The Jerusalem Police Chief was quoted as saying the shooting did not mark the beginning of the third Palestinian Intifada (uprising).

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the attack as “savage.” However, the U.N. Security Council failed to agree on a statement.

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