On Sunday night, a gunman opened fire at a group of Israeli tourists in Jerusalem’s Old City, killing one Israeli and injuring four others, according to Israel’s Channel 2.
According to the report, the attack occurred after Shlomo Asheri, an Israeli businessman, parked his car on the Via Dolorosa — the route from the Western Wall to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Asheri was attempting to take a photograph of the area around him when the gunman opened fire.
Israeli police are investigating the attack. At least one suspect was killed.
The Israeli military identified the gunman as 19-year-old Mahdi Maqdah of Hebron. Maqdah was a member of Hamas’s military wing, al-Qassam Brigades, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.
Maqdah had blown himself up in June 2017 as troops searched for him in a home in the village of Hebron, according to the IDF statement. His family was suspected of harboring militants in its home and attacked by Israeli troops.
During the search, an explosive device that Maqdah had constructed in the house went off, injuring a member of the Israeli military.
Hamas issued a statement calling the attack “a message of deterrence to those striving for peace and to those whom have been negotiating in vain for a long time.”
The U.S. State Department issued a statement saying it “strongly condemns” the incident.
“The Islamic State and other terrorist groups continue to sow violence and terror in the region, and the United States will stand with our friends in Israel to hold such groups to account,” the statement read.
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