Israeli police say a Palestinian gunman killed seven people and injured three others in a shooting outside a synagogue in Jerusalem on Friday. Israeli officials said a Palestinian gunman opened fire outside a synagogue in East Jerusalem on Friday, killing seven people and wounding three others before he was shot and killed by the police.    Israeli police commissioner Kobi Shabtai said the shooting was "one of the worst attacks we have encountered in recent years".  The attack comes amid escalating tensions between Israel and the Palestinian territories. A day earlier, nine Palestinians — including at least seven militants and an elderly woman — were killed in an Israeli military operation in the city of Jenin, in the occupied West Bank.      What do we know about the shooting?    Israeli police and medics said the shooting occurred outside a synagogue in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Neve Yaakov, where worshippers gathered for the Sabbath on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Authorities said the gunman fled in a car after opening fire, and that the police chased him. Following an exchange of fire, the attacker was "neutralized," police said.    The perpetrator was identified as a 21-year-old resident of East Jerusalem who was acting alone, as per preliminary investigation.    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who paid a visit to the scene of the shooting, told reporters that his security cabinet would announce "immediate measures" soon in response to the attack.  Netanyahu called on the Israeli public not to take the law into their own hands.  What have the reactions been like?    The US State Department has condemned the attack as "absolutely horrific."    "We condemn this apparent terrorist attack in the strongest terms," State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters. "Our commitment to Israel's security remains ironclad, and we are in direct touch with our Israeli partners."    US President Joe Biden asked his national security team to offer support in "assisting the wounded and bringing the perpetrators of this horrible crime to justice," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.    The attack came ahead of a planned visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Israel and the West Bank on Sunday. CIA director William Burns is also currently visiting Israel and the West Bank on a trip arranged before the latest violence.   Reuters news agency cited Palestinian officials as saying that Burns would meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday. But no comment was immediately available from US officials.   Germany's ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, has slammed the attack and expressed his condolences to the families of the victims.   "Deeply saddened by reports of a Palestinian gunman killing worshippers near a synagogue in Neve Yaakov — an evil terrorist act against Jews on Holocaust Remembrance Day. My heart goes out to the families of the murdered victims and I pray for the health of the injured," he wrote on Twitter.   The United Arab Emirates also condemned the synagogue attack, state news agency (WAM) reported citing a Foreign Ministry statement. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the attack, saying it was "particularly abhorrent" that it occurred at a place of worship and on the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.    He said in a statement carried by his spokesman Stephane Dujarric he was "deeply worried about the current escalation of violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory."

At least 52 Palestinians have been killed and 2 thousand 400 wounded by Israeli troops, Palestinian officials say, on the deadliest day of violence since the 2014 Gaza war. Palestinians have been protesting for weeks but deaths soared on the day the US opened its embassy in Jerusalem. Palestinians see this as clear US backing for Israeli rule over the whole city, whose eastern part they claim. But US President Donald Trump hailed the move in a video message. He told the dedication ceremony that it had been a "long time coming", adding: "Israel is a sovereign nation with the right to determine its own capital but for many years we failed to acknowledge the obvious." There have been six weeks of protests at the Gaza border, dubbed the "Great March of Return" and led by Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas. Hamas had always said it would step up the protests before Tuesday, when Palestinians hold their annual commemoration of what they call the Nakba or Catastrophe. Hundreds of thousands fled their homes or were displaced following the foundation of the Israeli state on 14 May 1948. On Monday, the Israeli military said 40 thousand Palestinians had taken part in "violent riots" at 13 locations along the Gaza Strip security fence. Palestinians hurled stones and incendiary devices while the Israeli military used snipers, as black smoke poured from burning tyres. The health ministry, run by Hamas, said children were among those killed. The Israeli military said it had killed three people trying to plant explosives near the security fence in Rafah. Aircraft and tanks had also targeted military positions belonging to Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip, it said. Israel says the protests are aimed at breaching the border and attacking Israeli communities nearby. There were also violent clashes between Israeli police and protesters who raised Palestinian flags outside the new embassy. Several protesters were detained. Source: BBC AH