Israeli security services say a Palestinian man suspected of shooting Jewish right wing activist Yehuda Glick was shot and killed on Thursday morning outside his residence.
Palestinian sources named the man as Muatnaz Hijazi, 32.
According to the Shin Bet, the man had in the past spent time in the Israeli prison system for security-related offences, opened fire at members of the Police Special Anti-Terror Unit when they approached him near his house in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Abu Tor.
Glick's condition stable
Shaare Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem said Glick's condition remained very serious, yet stable.
The prominent U.S.-born right-wing activist was seriously wounded in a drive-by shooting Wednesday night outside the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem, after a conference aimed at promoting Jewish presence in the Temple Mount.
Glick, who often led groups of Jews to visit the site, founded an organization advocating for Jews to be allowed to pray at the Temple Mount, which would mark a highly charged change to the delicate status quo.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon published a message after the shooting of Glick, wishing him a speedy recovery. "The attempt to assassinate Yehuda Glick is an additional, severe stage in the continuing Palestinian incitement against Jews and against the State of Israel."
Ya'alon "When Abbas spreads lies and incitement about the rights of Jews living in their own land, to their own worshipping, the result is terrorism of the kind directed against Yehuda Glick. This is Abbas and this is the Palestinian Authority he leads."
Ya'alon also called for restraint "in Jerusalem, and in general... Security services will continue to chase all terrorists and their handlers – and will find them."
Al Aqsa closed to worshippers
The capital was placed on high alert after the Wednesday night shooting. The Temple Mount compound was sealed off to worshippers and visitors, for the first time since former prime minister Ariel Sharon visited the place in September 2000.
MK Feiglin (Likud) visited the Temple Mount for a short time on Thursday morning, after announcing his intention to do so Wednesday night, a short time before the police announced the site's closure.
"The response to this shooting should be the opening of the Temple Mount to Jews," said Feiglin, who said he witnessed the shooting of Glick, and was present at the conference. "The writing was on the wall, and still is on all possible walls. The surrender to Arab violence on the mount, the persecution of Jews, the forbidding of prayer, are things that encourage the murderous violence to spill out of the mount to all parts of the land."
"This is a very difficult event, of the shooting of a well-known man," said Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch late on Wednesday night, referring to the shooting of Glick. "We have agreed to call in several hundreds of policeman and Border Police from the [West Bank]. The security services have recommended the full closure of the Temple Mount to everybody – Jews and Muslims – and it will indeed be closed, from tonight. I call on everyone to show responsibility, this is not the time to look for who to blame. There are many parties interested in aggravating the situation, and our aim is to calm it down… I truly hope that we will get the assassin."
Source: Top Stories - Google News - http://ift.tt/1vjojFL
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