Prominent Temple Mount Activist Shot by Islamic Jihad Terrorist in Assassination Attempt, Shooter Killed

Lea Speyer : Oct 31, 2014
Breaking Israel News

"His situation at this moment is stable but his life is at risk."

Prominent Temple Mount activist Rabbi Yehuda Glick, 49, was seriously injured Wednesday evening in a terrorist assassination attempt outside Jerusalem’s Begin Center following a conference about Jewish presence on the Temple Mount. (Photo: Yossi Zamir/Flash90)

Glick, the head of the Temple Mount Faithful (Haliba) organization, was shot three times. The shooter was wearing a helmet and fled the scene on a motorcycle. It is now known that the shooter is 32-year-old Palestinian Mu’taz Hijazi, an Islamic Jihad activist.

Glick had just finished presenting at the conference, entitled "Israel Returns to the Temple Mount." Witnesses at the scene said the shooter, who spoke with an Arabic accent, approached Glick and asked him to identify himself. He then shot the rabbi and fled on his motorcycle.

A Magen David Adom paramedic who first responded to the shooting told Tazpit News Agency, "We found a man suffering from a number of gunshot wounds in the upper part of his body."

Glick was immediately transported to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center in serious condition. He underwent emergency lifesaving surgery.

"His situation at this moment is stable but his life is at risk," Dr. Yonatan Halevy, director general of Shaare Zedek said. He confirmed that Glick underwent surgery for gunshot wounds in the chest and stomach. Halevy added that Glick had lost a lot of blood and was given several transfusions.

Hijazi, the shooter, was killed early Thursday morning in East Jerusalem following a shootout with police. According to Jerusalem Police, counter-terrorism officers came under fire when they came to arrest Hijazi. They returned fire and Hijazi was subsequently killed. (Photo via BIN)

"Anti-terrorist police units surrounded a house in the Abu Tor neighborhood to arrest a suspect in the attempted assassination of Yehuda Glick, immediately upon arrival they were shot at. They returned fire and shot and killed the suspect," police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said.

The Shin Bet confirmed that the 32-year-old shooter was previously arrested by Israel and had served 11 years in Israeli prison. He was released in 2012.

Islamic Jihad has taken responsibility for the attack. "The assassination attempt on Glick is an act of Palestinian vengeance, in response to what is happening in Jerusalem," an Islamic Jihad spokesman said on Thursday as reported by Channel 2.

Glick, a dual citizen of Israel and the US, has a long history of advocating for Jewish prayer rights on the Temple Mount. Glick was arrested last October for praying on the Temple Mount. He was barred from the Temple Mount but the decision was reversed following a 12-day hunger strike.

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