JERUSALEM/GAZA: PALESTINIAN GUNMAN OPENS FIRE IN JERUSALEM INJURING AT LEAST 20 PEOPLE.

Record ID: 377126

  • Title: JERUSALEM/GAZA: PALESTINIAN GUNMAN OPENS FIRE IN JERUSALEM INJURING AT LEAST 20 PEOPLE.
  • Date: 23rd January 2002
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (JANUARY 22, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV/PAN: AMBULANCE SIREN BLARING AT SCENE OF SHOOTING/ DRIVES OFF 0.15 2. GV: DOOR OF AMBULANCE OPENED OUTSIDE BIKUR CHOLIM HOSPITAL/ INJURED MAN WHEELED INTO HOSPITAL/ PEOPLE WHEELED DOWN CORRIDOR IN HOSPITAL (3 SHOTS) 0.34 3. GV/GV/PAN: ANOTHER AMBULANCE ARRIVES AT HOSPITAL/ PARAMEDICS
  • Embargoed: 7th February 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM/ GAZA
  • City:
  • Country: Gaza Jerusalem
  • Reuters ID: LVAAX2110YK3RMRYS9OFXAKDITFV
  • Story Text: The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a group linked to
    Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, has said
    they were behind a shooting in Jerusalem in which at least 20
    people were wounded.



    The wounded were taken to various hospitals in
    Jerusalem on Tuesday (January 22) after a Palestinian gunman
    opened fire on a well-trafficked street in the central part of
    the city. One eye witness, who said his name was Michael, who was
    taken to the Bikir Cholim hospital told Reuters: "I heard
    shots and I ran to the scene and I have a gun, I saw the guy,
    the terrorist shooting, and I fired at him and then I received
    a blow to the hand where the fragments hit me."
    One woman described how the gunman "got out of a taxi
    and began to shoot". She could not remember much else.

    The gunman sprayed bullets along central Jerusalem's Jaffa
    Road at rush hour on Tuesday, wounding at least 20 people and
    sowing panic among pedestrians until he was shot dead by
    Israeli police officers.

    Israeli government spokesman Gidon Meir condemned the
    attack.

    "The Palestinian deadly and bloody campaign of terror
    continues. We were witnessing today another campaign of terror
    which is a continuous campaign launched by the terrorist
    organisations, some of them which we brought directly to
    chairman Yasser Arafat."
    Police spokesman Gil Kleimann said that "immediately upon
    hearing the shots police units responded to the call.

    Immediately after a short chase of about 30 metres the gunman
    was caught in an alley way and shot and killed by policemen."
    "We're dealing with 15 to 17 people wounded, thank God
    no-one was killed, we're are also dealing with a slight number
    of moderate injuries, and most of the injuries thank God are
    lightly wounded," Kleimann said.

    The attack plunged the shop-lined street into a now
    familiar drama. Jaffa Road and its adjacent pedestrian mall
    have become frequent targets in a nearly 16-month-old
    Palestinian uprising against occupation.

    Window displays became webs of shattered glass. Blood
    stained the floor of a pharmacy caught in the line of fire.

    The rampage ended quickly after a policeman identified
    the shooter and killed him.

    The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group linked to
    Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, claimed
    responsibility for the shooting it called revenge for Israel's
    killing of Palestinians during the uprising.

    Jerusalem's Mayor Ehud Olmer said Israelis were getting
    used to going through these devastating and painful
    experiences.

    He praised the courage of policeman Hanan Ben-Naim for
    shooting the gunman, but said he could not promise it would
    not happen again.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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