Palestinian gunmen kill 2 Israeli police at Jerusalem shrine

JERUSALEM (AP) — Three Palestinian assailants opened fire on Israeli police from inside a major Jerusalem holy site on Friday, gravely wounding two officers before being shot dead, police said. The officers later died.

The rare attack from within the contested site, revered by both Muslims and Jews, raised new concerns about an escalation of violence. Police identified the attackers as Arab citizens of Israel.

The sacred compound sits at the fault line of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and has triggered major confrontations in the past.

After the attack, Israel closed the site — known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount — for further weapons sweeps.

The closure, also something that rarely happens, meant a cancellation of noon prayers, which typically draw tens of thousands of Muslims from Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank to the compound on Fridays.

Unable to reach the shrine, some of the faithful performed prayers in the streets near Jerusalem’s walled Old City and then dispersed quietly.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly tried to allay Muslim fears, saying that the status quo at the Muslim-administered site “will be preserved.”

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said that “we cannot allow for agents of murder who desecrate the name of God, to drag us into a bloody war.”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reached out to Netanyahu in a phone call, highlighting the concern about a possible escalation. The leaders have almost no direct contact.

Abbas condemned the attack and said he rejects “any violence from any party, particularly at holy sites,” said the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

The sacred compound, popular with tourists, is the holiest site in Judaism and the third-holiest in Islam, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. It forms the centerpiece of rival Israel and Palestinian national narratives and has been a scene of repeated confrontations.

Friday’s shooting was the latest in a wave of Palestinian attacks that erupted in 2015, in part over tensions at the Jerusalem holy site. Involvement by Arab Israelis in such attacks has also been rare.

Israeli police chief Roni Alsheikh said the weapons used in Friday’s attack had been brought into the holy compound.