Jerusalem shootings prompt Israeli security crackdown

Published on Friday 7 March 2008 12:29

ISRAEL imposed a security clampdown on Jerusalem and the West Bank today after a Palestinian gunman killed eight students at one of the city's most prominent Jewish religious schools.

Thousands poured into Jerusalem to take part in open-air funerals for the victims, aged 15 to 26. Police set up road blocks and the army tightened restrictions on Palestinian travel in and from the occupied West Bank for 36 hours.

The gunman, who had once worked as a driver for the college, was shot dead after opening fire with an automatic rifle at students in the library. The Merkaz Harav seminary has long been an ideological base for the Jewish settler movement in the Palestinian territories.

Police named the attacker as Ala Abu. It was the bloodiest attack on Israelis in two years and the first such bloodshed in four years in Jerusalem, whose Arab residents have open access to Jewish parts of the city. Hamas hailed the "heroic operation" but stopped short of claiming responsibility.

Israel called yesterday's shooting a "massacre" but said peace talks would continue with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who condemned the attack.