This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/world/middleeast/yehuda-glick-shooting-suspect-killed-jerusalem.html

The article has changed 15 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 5 Version 6
Israeli Forces Kill Man Suspected of Involvement in Activist’s Shooting Israel Blocks Access to Contested Holy Site in Jerusalem
(about 2 hours later)
JERUSALEM — Israeli counterterrorism forces in East Jerusalem shot and killed a Palestinian man on Thursday morning who was suspected of involvement in Wednesday’s assassination attempt against Yehuda Glick, a prominent Israeli-American activist who has agitated for more Jewish access to a contested holy site. JERUSALEM — The Israeli authorities closed off all access to a contested holy site in the Old City here on Thursday for the first time in years, a step that a Palestinian spokesman denounced as amounting to “a declaration of war.”
Micky Rosenfeld, a spokesman for the police, said a counterterrorism unit had surrounded a house in the Abu Tor neighborhood and was trying to make an arrest in the Glick case when shots were fired at the officers. The man was shot and killed immediately, Mr. Rosenfeld said. The action came after Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man who was suspected of involvement in an attempt on Wednesday to assassinate a leading agitator for more Jewish access to the site, which Jews call the Temple Mount and Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary. The closure prevented Muslims from worshiping at Al Aksa mosque, one of the three holiest sites in Islam.
The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, identified the man who was killed as Mu’atez Hijazi and said he was released in 2012 after spending 11 years in an Israeli prison. He was said to be in his early 30s. Israel has increasingly restricted access to the site on certain days, barring young Muslim men or non-Muslim visitors, citing concerns over clashes. Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, said that the action on Thursday was the first complete closure of the site since 2000, when a visit by Ariel Sharon — who was then the leader of the opposition in Parliament — helped set off the second Palestinian intifada. Samir Abu al-Leil of the Islamic Waqf, the body responsible for Al Aksa and other Muslim holy sites, said the area had not been fully closed since 1967.
Hours after the killing of Mr. Hijazi, clashes between residents and the police were taking place in Abu Tor. In a statement, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, quoted Mr. Abbas as describing the Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem as “a red line” where there could be no compromise. Israel’s decision was a “grave act” that would “add to the tensions and instability and create a dangerous atmosphere,” he said.
For the first time in many years, the Israeli authorities closed the holy site to all — Muslim worshipers, Jewish visitors and tourists — until further notice to prevent unrest, Mr. Rosenfeld said, as the latest events brought months of tensions in the city to a new peak. The site has been the scene of increasingly fierce clashes between Muslim worshipers and protesters and the Israeli police in recent weeks. Mr. Abbas has accused Israel of trying to change the status quo at the site to allow open Jewish prayer there, something Israeli and Palestinian analysts alike have warned could set off a major conflagration.
The site, a sacred plateau revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, where ancient Jewish temples once stood, and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, where Al Aksa Mosque is, has been the scene of increasingly fierce clashes between Muslim worshipers and protesters and the police in recent weeks. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has insisted that he will not alter the status quo at the site, which Israel seized along with the rest of the Old City in 1967 but immediately handed back to the Islamic authorities. Israel maintains responsibility for security.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, described the Israeli decision to close the site as “a grave act” and said it would “add to the tensions and instability and create a dangerous atmosphere,” according to Wafa. On Thursday, Mr. Netanyahu condemned the shooting of the Jewish activist, Yehuda Glick, as “an act of terrorism,” and accused Mr. Abbas of inciting violence. He pointed to a recent speech in which the Palestinian Authority president called on his people to defend the mosque compound from Jewish encroachment “by all means.”
In an interview with Agence France-Presse, Mr. Abu Rudeineh also quoted Mr. Abbas as saying, “This dangerous Israeli escalation is a declaration of war on the Palestinian people and its sacred places and on the Arab and Islamic nation.” “I have ordered significant reinforcements, so that we can maintain both security in Jerusalem and the status quo in the holy places,” Mr. Netanyahu said after an emergency consultation with senior security officials. “This struggle might be long, and here, like in other struggles, we must first of all lower the flames. No side should take the law into its own hands. We must be levelheaded and act with determination and responsibility, and so we shall.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel condemned the shooting of Mr. Glick as “an act of terrorism.” The Israeli leader accused radical Islamic forces and Mr. Abbas of inciting violence, citing a recent speech in which Mr. Abbas called on Palestinians to defend the mosque compound from Jewish encroachment “by all means.” Mr. Glick is a prominent Israeli-American activist who has frequently been arrested at the Temple Mount. Israeli counterterrorism forces said they killed the Palestinian suspect in Mr. Glick’s shooting while attempting to arrest him on Thursday.
“I have ordered significant reinforcements so that we can maintain both security in Jerusalem and the status quo in the holy places,” Mr. Netanyahu said after an emergency consultation with senior security officials. “This struggle might be long, and here, like in other struggles, we must first of all lower the flames. No side should take the law into its own hands. We must be levelheaded and act with determination and responsibility, and so we shall.” Micky Rosenfeld, a spokesman for the police, said the forces had surrounded a house in the Abu Tor neighborhood when shots were fired at the officers, who responded immediately.
Mr. Glick was shot and seriously wounded on Wednesday night as he left the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in the western part of the city by a lone assailant who fled on a motorcycle. A spokeswoman for the Shaare Zedek Medical Center, the Jerusalem hospital where Mr. Glick was taken, said Thursday that his condition was stable but still very serious and that he had four gunshot wounds to the chest, neck, stomach and arm. The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, identified the man who was killed as Mu’atez Hijazi, and said he was released in 2012 after spending 11 years in an Israeli prison. He was said to be in his early 30s.
Mr. Glick and his supporters had been attending a convention pushing for more Jewish access to the mount, which is administered by Muslim authorities. Palestinian leaders have protested the increasing Jewish presence on the mount, as ultranationalist Jewish activists and groups, often led by Mr. Glick, have made a point of visiting more frequently and have been campaigning for Jewish prayer rights at the site, contrary to an arrangement that has been in place for decades. Under the arrangement, Jews are not allowed to worship atop the mount, only in the Western Wall plaza below. Hours after Mr. Hijazi was killed, residents and the police were clashing in Abu Tor, as the latest events brought months of tension in Jerusalem to a new peak. Mr. Hijazi’s relatives and neighbors in Abu Tor said they awoke to the sound of shooting early Thursday morning.
Mr. Hijazi’s relatives and neighbors in Abu Tor said they awoke to the sound of shooting early Thursday morning. Mr. Glick was shot and seriously wounded on Wednesday night as he left the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in the western part of Jerusalem. Witnesses said a lone assailant fled the scene on a motorcycle.
Taghreed Hijazi, Mr. Hijazi’s aunt, said she heard a commotion outside her home, looked out of her kitchen window and saw a police officer aiming a gun at her. “He ordered me to shut the window and get inside,” she said. A spokeswoman for the Shaare Zedek Medical Center, the Jerusalem hospital where Mr. Glick was taken, said on Thursday that he had suffered four gunshot wounds to the chest, neck, stomach and arm and that his condition was stable but still very serious.
She then saw a group of police officers dragging Mr. Hijazi’s brother, Odai, into the courtyard. Some officers went up to the rooftop, where Mr. Hijazi was later found dead, and others raided his room, she said. Solar panels on the roof were punctured with more than two dozen bullet holes. Under an arrangement in place for decades, Jews are not allowed to worship atop the mount, only in the Western Wall plaza below. Ultranationalist Jewish activists and groups, often led by Mr. Glick, have made a point of visiting the mount more frequently in recent years and have been campaigning for Jewish prayer rights on the mount, where ancient Jewish temples once stood.
Mr. Hijazi’s sister, Shayma, accused the police of killing him “in cold blood.” More than 8,500 Jews visited the mount last year, compared with fewer than 6,000 in 2010, according to the Israeli police. Mr. Rosenfeld did not respond to requests for information on Jewish visits this year, but Ir Amim, a left-wing group that tracks activity at the site, said the police have reported an increase of 20 percent.
Relatives said Mr. Hijazi worked in a restaurant in West Jerusalem and as an electrician. They said he had been jailed for setting electrical equipment on fire. At a Parliament committee meeting this week, the interior ministry reported that Israel had restricted Muslim access, usually barring men under 50, on 40 occasions this year, up from eight days in 2013, according to Aviv Tatarsky of Ir Amim, who was present at the meeting. Jews, whose access is always restricted to certain hours, have also been barred on various days, including during part of the recent holiday of Sukkot.
Ynet, the Hebrew news site, reported that Mr. Hijazi worked in the kitchen of the restaurant that operates in the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, where Mr. Glick was attending a convention on Jewish prayer rights and Israeli control at the Temple Mount before he was shot. Restaurant staff members reached by telephone refused to comment. Mr. Abu al-Leil of the Islamic Waqf said the police stopped him on Thursday from entering the Aksa compound for the noon prayer, as he normally does, so he instead worshiped with others near an Old City gate.
Abu Tor, a residential neighborhood that straddles the 1967 line between East and West Jerusalem, is split between predominantly Jewish and predominantly Arab sections. The eastern part of the neighborhood spills into Silwan, another point of contention in the city just outside the Old City walls, below the Temple Mount and in the shadow of Al Aksa Mosque. “To prevent worshipers from praying is irrational policy, because it triggers violence and hatred,” he said in an interview. “It is very hard to accept this situation. The violence will erupt soon.”
Jewish settlers have recently acquired dozens of homes around an archaeological site there believed to be the ruins of the ancient City of David, and Palestinian residents frequently clash with the police.
Last week, a Palestinian resident of Silwan plowed his car into a group of pedestrians at a light-rail station in northern Jerusalem, killing two, in what the police said was a deliberate attack. The driver, Abd al-Rahman al-Shaloudy, was shot and killed by a police officer at the scene.
The victims of that episode were a 3-month-old Israeli baby with American citizenship and a young woman from Ecuador. The driver’s family said it believed he had accidentally lost control of the car, though footage from security cameras showed his car swerving off a main road and across the tracks, and then speeding along the narrow platform.