07 March 2008
A Palestinian gunman from East Jerusalem has killed seven people with an assault rifle inside the library of the Mercaz Harav rabbinical seminary in Jerusalem, where about 80 students were gathered. Most of those killed were reported to be teenagers. At least nine people were injured. A student reportedly shot the gunman twice before an off-duty Israeli army officer killed him. The head of the rescue service described a scene of carnage at the seminary: “The whole building looked like a slaughterhouse," said Yehuda Meshi Zahav. "The floors are littered with holy books covered in blood."
A previously unknown group called the ‘Jalil Freedom Battalions - Martyrs of Imad Mughniyeh and Gaza’ claims to have carried out the attack, according to Hezbollah-controlled media in Lebanon. Mughniyeh, a senior Hezbollah leader and military commander, was killed in a car bomb in Damascus in February.
Some Israelis have called for an end to peace talks with the Palestinians but the Israeli government has said they would continue. Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas condemned the fact that Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip celebrated the terror attack. A loudspeaker in Gaza City reportedly broadcast the message: "This is God's vengeance." Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the group "blesses the heroic operation in Jerusalem," calling it a "natural reaction" to Israeli attacks.
World leaders spoke out against the attack, which was the first of its kind in Jerusalem in almost two years. United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack “in the strongest terms” and said he was alarmed at “the potential for continued acts of violence and terrorism to undermine the political process.” But the UN Security Council, in an emergency closed-door session, was unable to settle on a similar statement.
“We were not able to come to an agreement because the Libyan delegation, with the support of one or two others, did not want to condemn this act by itself,” Zalmay Khalilzad, the American UN ambassador, told reporters. Libya, a new member of the council this year, reportedly wanted to include language condemning the recent Israeli incursions into Gaza.
