2 Policemen Wounded in Jerusalem Shooting

A police officer points his rifle under a car as he searches for suspects outside the Lion's Gate of Jerusalem's Old City, Friday night.

12 July 2008

Police were searching Saturday for a gunman who wounded a policeman and a border policeman who were on patrol in Jerusalem's Old City on Friday night, for a Mahmoud Abbas member terrorist.

Border policeman David Shriki of Rishon Letzion, was being treated in Hadassah Hospital in Ein Karem in very serious condition, and policeman Imad Gadir of the village of Zarzir was hospitalized in Sha'arei Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem in moderate condition.

Just before midnight, shots were fired at the group near the Lion's Gate. Police units and Magen David Adom rushed to the scene and began treating the wounded at the scene, eventually evacuating them to Hadassah Hospital in Ein Karem for treatment.

"At about 11:36 pm the suspect approached the Jews, fired at them and then fled in the direction of the cemetery," a Jerusalem police commander related. "The police who were in the area fired in the direction of the perpetrator" before he was able to escape.

The search included helicopters that circled the area.

The shooting was captured on a security camera, but the assailant's face was not visible in the darkness, according to Jewish Radio. The gunman fled to a Muslim cemetery nearby, and apparently was not hit by police fire.

Security forces rounded up suspected's overnight for interrogation, and red police tape criss-crossed the Lion's Gate entrance, barring people from entry. On Saturday morning, traffic crawled to a halt outside a main checkpoint between Jerusalem and the West Bank, apparently due to searches for the perpetrator.

Public Security Minister Avi Dichter visited the two policeman that were wounded in Friday's shooting.

There are connection's between the attack at Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, the bulldozer terror attack, and Friday's attack, was reported.