Jerusalem: New shooting wounds two Israeli settlers in Silwan

A shooting at a settlement in the Silwan neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem on Saturday wounded two Israeli settlers, according to Israeli police.

The City of David settlement is located within the predominantly Palestinian district of Silwan, on the southern side of Al-Aqsa Mosque. Security sources told Haaretz the suspect is a 13-year-old resident of the area, and that he was shot but not killed. Authorities have yet to reveal the identity of the shooter.

Those wounded are a 22-year old off-duty Israeli soldier and his 47-year old father, the Israeli newspaper added. They have both been hospitalised. 

Israeli security services raised the security level to the highest alert after the shooting, which was the second in two days after a fatal shooting on Friday killed seven people outside a building used as a synagogue in the settlement of Neve Yaakov in East Jerusalem.

Israeli security forces killed Friday's shooter, a Palestinian, and detained 42 members of his family. 

Later on Saturday, Israeli journalist Barak Ravid cited a senior Israeli official as saying that Prime Minister Netanyahu will bring up a series of response measures to the attacks for approval in the cabinet this evening.

The proposed measures, Ravid said, include a law to deport families of Palestinians involved in the killings and sealing of their homes, arresting their family members, and speeding up the granting of gun permits to Israeli citizens.

Growing violence against Palestinians

The shooting on Friday came a day after Israeli forces killed 10 Palestinians in the West Bank, nine of them during a large-scale raid in the Jenin refugee camp.

Israeli troops have killed 30 people this month in a sign of continued growing violence against Palestinians.

Last year, more Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank and East Jerusalem than in any single calendar year since the Second Intifada. 

At least 220 people died in Israeli attacks across the occupied territories in 2022, including 48 children. Of the total death toll, 167 were from the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and 53 were from the Gaza Strip.