Last update - 00:00 27/05/2007
Gunmen in Saturday shooting attack were East J'lem residents
By Jonathan Lis and Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondents
The gunmen who shot and wounded two Israeli security guards Saturday night in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Saad were permanent Israeli residents.
Security forces killed the two men, who have been named as Mumdoh Shihirat and Mahmoud Awisat, soon after their attack. Both were from the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood in East Jerusalem.
The bodies of the gunmen have been transferred to the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute, as well as body of Anas Awisat, 19, who was hit in the gunfire and died afterwards.
Police are checking whether Anas Awisat was connected to the militants or was simply a passerby. A Border Policeman and a security guard were hurt in the attack.
Israel grants residency rights to Palestinians living in East Jerusalem.
The incident occurred at around 8:30 P.M., when Awisat and Shihirat approached a member of the Border Police and a security guard who were standing at a roadblock near the Jerusalem periphery highway, near the Sheikh Saad neighborhood southeast of the capital. The Palestinians then opened fire on them with a pistol at close range.
The border policeman was hit in the chest and seriously wounded, the security guard moderately so. Both men were later evacuated to Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital for treatment. Awisat and Shihirat then tried to escape, opening fire on two other security officers. These officers returned fire and killed the two Palestinians.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of Fatah, claimed responsibility for the attack.
In recent years incidents have taken place at different points along the Jerusalem periphery road nearly every week. Palestinian militants target security guards traveling in vehicles along the road.