Lone Gunman, Israeli Style

JERUSALEM, March 6 (Reuters) - A Palestinian gunman opened fire in a Jewish religious school in Jerusalem on Thursday, killing at least eight people and wounding about 10 in the most lethal attack in Israel in two years, emergency services said.

"It was a slaughterhouse," said Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, head of the Zaka emergency service after surveying the scene at the Merkaz Harav seminary, one of the most prominent Jewish educational centres in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem police chief Aharon Franco said a lone gunman carried out the attack and was killed by an Israeli army officer who lives nearby and ran to the school after hearing gunfire. Police had said earlier there were two gunmen.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which was greeted with celebrations in the Gaza Strip, where a recent Israeli offensive killed more than 120 Palestinians, about half of whom were identified as civilians.

I'm sorry, of course, for those who died. However, a rare attack like this has to be greeted with some suspicion.


UPDATED story here. Hamas has sort of claimed responsibility now and "the lone gunman" has been named.

UPDATE 2: Email comment-- "the media is all over this deaths of several israelis but where were they last week when 120 palestinian people including children were killed by israelis?"