An Israeli man in his 20s is dead and four others were injured after a Hamas assailant opened fire with a submachine gun in Jerusalem’s Old City Sunday morning.
Eliyahu David Kay, a 26-year-old who recently moved to Israel from South Africa, was killed in the attack, according to Israeli media reports.
A video shared on social media showed several people running in the Western Wall plaza at the time of the shooting. Among the injured were Jews who were still wearing ritual prayer garb after praying at the Western Wall, according to an account shared in The Times of Israel.
The shooting took place near an entrance to the Temple Mount. Police opened fire on the scene of the attack and killed the shooter, who the official Hamas television station identified as Fadi Abu Shkhaydam, a 42-year-old member of the Palestinian terrorist group who lived in Shuafat in East Jerusalem, according to The Times of Israel.
The 26-year-old Israeli killed was a former soldier in the IDF’s paratroopers unit, who had served as a lone soldier after making Aliyah following an experience as part of The Jewish Agency for Israel’s Masa program, according to information from The Jewish Agency. His parents had recently made Aliyah as well.
The family has received financial support via the Jewish Agency’s Victims of Terror Fund, a fund that has been previously supported by donors in the Kansas City Jewish community.
Israel’s Minister of Public Security Omar Barlev said the attack appeared to have been planned ahead of time.
“The terrorist was a member of Hamas’s political branch who regularly prayed in the Old City. His wife fled abroad three days ago and he used standard weapons that are not commonly available in Israel,” Barlev said at the scene of the attack, according to The Times of Israel.
Three of those wounded in the attack were taken to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, while Kay was taken to Hadassah’s Mount Scopus hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
“A victim with a serious head injury … was evacuated [to the hospital] while receiving CPR, with no vital signs,” the hospital said in a statement. “A trauma team continued the CPR but was forced to pronounce his death.”
A funeral for Kay was held on Monday, which the South African Jewish community requested be televised.
