7-14-17

These gunmen knew that a shooting attack at the most incendiary spot in the Middle East would be likely to prompt a major escalation. 

According to Army Radio, Hussein in his sermon called on Arabs and Palestinians to gather en masse for the sake of Jerusalem, and against the closure of the compound.

Shooting on the Temple Mount

Several Gunmen tried to enter the Temple Mount in Jerusalem this morning near the lions gate. Several people are reported to be wounded in serious condition in the local hospitals

Source Israeli News Live

BREAKING “Shootout On Temple Mount” In Jerusalem

Source Paul Begley

Raw: Gunmen Kill 2 Police at Jerusalem Shrine

Source Associated Press

Temple Mount killers aimed to set the Middle East ablaze

Arab Israeli trio selected the most resonant site in the region; they expected to die, and to trigger much more bloodshed

The problem is that the Israeli security establishment — the Shin Bet, the police — also knew nothing ahead of time about the murderous plans of the three Arab Israelis from Umm al-Fahm who killed two Druze policeman at the Mount. The trio, aged 19, 20 and 30, managed to stay under the radar of Israeli intelligence. They were able to strike without warning, and once again to fatally jar the exposed nerves of Israelis regarding the country’s Arab citizens.

The attackers capitalized on their great advantage: As Israelis, they carried blue identity cards, and were able to gain free access to the Temple Mount, undisturbed by roadblocks and checkpoints.

Getting guns was no problem, either. In the Arab sector, emphatically including their local Wadi Ara region, weapons are readily available — either stolen from the IDF, or home produced.

They selected the most resonant site, on the most resonant day of the week: The Temple Mount complex, on the day of Friday prayers.

Master Sgt. Kamil Shnaan, left, and Master Sgt. Haiel Sitawe, right, the police officers killed in the terror attack next to the Temple Mount complex in Jerusalem on July 14, 2017. (Israel Police)

The trio were inside the complex — as their relatives later confirmed, and as their own selfies attested — before they ventured out to open fire, fatally, on a group of police officers.

They knew that a shooting attack at the most incendiary spot in the Middle East would be likely to prompt a major escalation.

Three Arab Israelis named by the Shin Bet as responsible for shooting dead two Israeli police officers next to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on July 14, 2017: Muhammad Ahmed Muhammad Jabarin, 29; Muhammad Hamad Abdel Latif Jabarin, 19 and Muhammad Ahmed Mafdal Jabarin, 19. (Channel 2 composite screenshot)

They anticipated that a shooting spree at the Temple Mount compound, which would end with their deaths too, would gain massive media coverage — and knew that previous incidents of this type had set in motion a still more bloody chain of events.

And indeed, very soon after their attack, social media was flowing with footage from the scene, including images of Israeli Border Police shooting one of the attackers, apparently injured, as he tried to get up and lunge at cops with a knife.

Israeli security forces inspect the site of an attack in Jerusalem’s Old City on July 14, 2017.(AFP PHOTO / Thomas COEX)

It’s hard to establish at this stage whether the attack was organized by a specific terrorist group. All options are open — including an Islamic State-inspired attack, a locally organized strike, or a Hamas attack with or without the involvement of the Northern Branch of Israel’s Islamic Movement. Umm al-Fahm is a familiar stronghold of Raed Salah’s Northern Branch.

Source The Times of Israel

Israel detains grand mufti of Jerusalem in wake of Temple Mount attack

Another prominent cleric, ex-mufti Akrama Sabari, arrested after delivering Friday sermon near site calling on Muslims to ‘liberate’ city

The grand mufti of Jerusalem, Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, the city’s highest Islamic authority, had earlier gathered in the Old City with others and condemned the closure of the holy site for prayers following the attack. Israel said it temporarily closed the site after the shooting for security reasons, including to search for weapons.

In his speech, Hussein called on Muslim masses to flood to the holy site, and condemned what he called Friday’s Israeli “aggression” there, Army Radio reported — a presumed reference to the closure of the site and/or to Israeli forces’ shooting of the assailants.

Muslim worshippers performed prayers in the streets after police sealed the area. Friday noon prayers mark the highlight of the Muslim religious week. Tens of thousands typically pray at the Temple Mount, which houses the third-holiest site in Islam — the Al-Aqsa Mosque — as well as the Dome of the Rock sanctuary. It is Judaism’s holiest site, venerated as the location of the destroyed first and second temples.

Muslim worshipers gather for Friday prayer outside Jerusalem’s Old City, Friday, July 14, 2017. Temple Mount was temporarily closed off after two officers were killed in an attack by three Arab-Israeli gunmen there. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Police closed the site Friday, after the three Israeli-Arab assailants opened fire from there, killing the two policemen and injuring a third. With the mosque off limits, the faithful lined up near Damascus Gate and other entrances to the Old City.

Hussein’s son Jihad Hussein said his father had been taken to a police station near the Old City. “Until now, we don’t know what is going on with my father,” he said.

This file photo taken on November 6, 2015 shows Jerusalem’s Mufti Mohammed Hussein posing in front of the Dome of the Rock mosque at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, in Jerusalem’s Old City. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)