2017 Har Adar Shooting

Har Adar is a community northwest of Jerusalem situated along the seam line between Israel and the West Bank — Judea and Samaria. Each morning, Palestinian laborers from nearby villages holding valid work permits crossed through the community's rear entrance, known as the Bido Gate or Bidu checkpoint, to take up employment in Har Adar.[1] Hundreds of Palestinian laborers entered the community each day, working for residents and the local council in roles ranging from construction to cleaning.[3]

The attacker, Nimr Mahmoud Ahmad Jamal, was a 37-year-old resident of Bayt Surik and a father of four.[7][2] He held a valid work permit for the seam-zone area and had worked in Har Adar for an extended period, including as a cleaner in residents' homes and, at one point, for the local council.[7] Television weather presenter Sharon Vakslers recalled employing him as a cleaner and said the council had described him as a well-known figure in Bayt Surik from a respected family. He also raised and sold sheep for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.[7]

Israeli security authorities reported that Jamal had no prior security record, and officials said he had presented no obvious profile of a potential attacker.[7][3] Initial Shin Bet reporting described serious personal and family problems, including alleged domestic violence. His wife had reportedly left for Jordan several weeks before the attack, leaving him with their four children, and security sources initially characterized the principal background to the attack as personal.[7][2]

At around 7:00 a.m. on September 26, 2017, Jamal joined a group of Palestinian laborers approaching the Bido Gate at the rear of Har Adar and was the last person in line.[1][3] As Border Police officers and security guards conducted routine entry procedures, his clothing and conduct aroused their suspicion. They initiated a suspect-detention procedure and ordered him to stop.[1]

Jamal opened his shirt, drew a pistol concealed beneath it and fired at the security personnel at close range.[1] Border Police Staff Sergeant Solomon Gavriyah and security guards Youssef Ottman and Or Arish were killed. Har Adar security coordinator Amit Steinheart was shot twice and evacuated to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in serious but stable condition. He later said that a bullet struck his shoulder, perforated his diaphragm and collapsed his left lung, while another shot came close to his spine.[8][2] Security personnel returned fire and killed Jamal at the scene.[1][3]

In the immediate aftermath, security forces conducted extensive searches throughout Har Adar and ruled out the presence of additional attackers.[3] Palestinian laborers who had already passed through the checkpoint were questioned and sent back to their villages, while entry for additional workers was halted. The rear gate remained closed the following day, and workers who arrived seeking employment were turned back.[9]

The weapon was described as a standard pistol stolen in 2003.[7] Before the shooting, Jamal posted a message describing himself as a bad husband and his spouse as a good wife.[2] A recent social-media post had also included the words, "I am afraid of no one except Allah," although reporting did not treat that statement alone as a specific warning of impending violence.[7] A subsequent analysis argued that Jamal had planned the attack, citing a Facebook will, his acquisition of the pistol and the possibility that he had practiced shooting, while qualifying the firearms-practice claim as probable rather than established.[10]

Solomon Gavriyah, 20, was a Border Police staff sergeant who had immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia in 1999.[4] About a year before the Har Adar attack, he had been lightly wounded in the neck in a separate attack but insisted on returning to Border Police service. His company commander said he had served in the Jerusalem perimeter and had previously confronted a terrorist, saving residents of Jerusalem and the surrounding area. He was buried in the military cemetery in Be'er Ya'akov.[4]

Youssef Ottman, 25, came from Abu Ghosh and had served as a combat soldier, receiving an outstanding-soldier certificate.[4] His father described him as responsible for the security unit at Har Adar, guarding residents and workers. Ottman's cousin Mohai Ottman had been killed in the 1997 Mahane Yehuda market bombing. Youssef Ottman was buried in Abu Ghosh.[4]

Or Arish, 25, was a Har Adar resident who had served in the Paratroopers, completed a security course after leaving the military and begun working as a security guard several months before the attack.[4] He had originally been scheduled for an evening shift but requested an additional morning shift to earn money for his studies.[4] Witnesses later credited him with physically confronting Jamal, giving Steinheart the seconds needed to draw his weapon and return fire.[8] Arish was buried in Har Adar.[4]

A week after the shooting, Steinheart was discharged from hospital and described the injuries he had sustained. He said Arish's actions had given him the critical time needed to respond.[8] Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh similarly said the rapid response of the Border Police personnel and a security guard had prevented a larger disaster.[3]

Israeli security forces searched Bayt Surik, raided Jamal's home, encircled the area and deployed additional personnel on roads and at crossings.[4] Three suspects were arrested near the village, including two of Jamal's brothers, on suspicion of involvement in the attack.[4]

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Jamal's home would be demolished, that his village had been cordoned off and that work permits held by members of his extended family would be revoked.[2]

On November 15, 2017, IDF soldiers and Border Police entered Bayt Surik and demolished Jamal's apartment. The military destroyed the apartment rather than the entire building in which it was located.[5]

About two months after the attack, Har Adar announced comprehensively revised procedures governing Palestinian worker access. Previously issued work approvals were declared invalid, and employers or residents were required to submit updated requests.[6] Workers would undergo metal-detector screening and verification of identity documents and work permits. Employers were required to collect workers personally, deposit their magnetic access cards, accompany them throughout the working day and arrange armed guarding whenever more than one worker was employed at a site.[6]

The procedures prohibited Palestinian workers from walking freely through Har Adar, entering through the main gate without prior approval or leaving Har Adar for other parts of Israel.[6] The Bido Gate was upgraded with additional inspection and protective measures and was scheduled to reopen after the procedures were adopted.[6]

No organization publicly claimed responsibility for the attack.[11] Hamas welcomed the shooting and described it as a new chapter in the Jerusalem intifada.[1] Senior Hamas official Musa Abu Marzouk posted a statement on Facebook on the day of the attack portraying Jerusalem as an enduring Palestinian and Muslim cause.[10] Hamas activists in the Gaza Strip distributed pastries and candy to passersby in celebration.[12]

Fatah's official Facebook page posted a photograph of Jamal with comments including "Glory to the shaheeds."[12] Jamal Muheisen, a member of Fatah's Central Committee, later visited the family's mourning tent in Bayt Surik and delivered a speech after the attacker's body was returned.[13]

Extremist online channels also glorified the attack. The Al-Tawhid Brigade Telegram channel and Buraq Media congratulated "Mujahid Nimr Jamal" and urged continued focus on Jerusalem. Islamic State supporters used the shooting to circulate propaganda calling for attacks on Jews. Nearly 7,000 tweets and retweets employed the hashtag "#Jerusalem_Operation," with many discussing the killings in congratulatory terms.[11]

Initial reporting stated that Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority had not condemned the attack in its immediate aftermath.[12] Three days later, Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said Abbas's position was to condemn acts of violence, including the Har Adar attack, regardless of their source.[14]

On February 16, 2018, Jamal's remains were transferred to his family through coordination involving the Palestinian Red Crescent and the Palestinian Authority's Civil Affairs Ministry.[13][15] He was buried in Bayt Surik.[13]

Thousands of people attended his funeral procession in the village. The families of the three Israeli victims publicly objected to the public honoring of the man responsible for the killings.[15]

The shooting attracted analytical attention in part because Jamal did not fit the profile that security officials commonly associated with potential attackers. Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh said there was no uniform profile for attackers, while Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan confirmed that there had been no specific warning and that the initial investigation had revealed no known record indicating special intent or dangerousness.[3]

Initial Shin Bet reporting emphasized severe personal and family problems and the departure of Jamal's wife in the weeks before the attack.[7] A separate analysis presented the shooting as preplanned, citing the Facebook message, the pistol and possible firearms practice, while qualifying some details as probable rather than definitively established.[10] No single motive was conclusively determined; reports and analyses discussed personal grievances, family breakdown, ideological influences and wider Palestinian incitement without establishing which factors were decisive.[16]

A later analysis used the Har Adar shooting to challenge the assumption that potential attackers can always be identified through an obvious extremist profile. It distinguished between broad cultural or ideological "fuel" and personal, psychological, social or environmental "triggers." The analysis described Jamal as known to the local Israeli community and security forces as non-threatening, friendly and on good terms with others, qualities that made the attack difficult to anticipate.[16]

NGO Monitor quoted a Palestinian Centre for Human Rights account that described four Israeli Border Guard officers as present and stated that Israeli forces opened fire on Jamal. NGO Monitor disputed that account as factually incorrect, arguing that it reversed the sequence in which Jamal initiated the shooting and security personnel responded.[17] The attacker's name was rendered variously as Nimer, Nimr, Namir or Nemer Mahmoud Jamal, reflecting differences in transliteration rather than a substantive dispute over his identity.[18][17]

The demolition announcement, permit revocations and later destruction of Jamal's apartment were reported as Israeli security responses to the attack.[2][5] Accounts of the Palestinian Authority's reaction also differed according to timing: initial reporting described no immediate condemnation, while a subsequent report recorded a condemnation of violence, including the Har Adar attack, three days later.[12][14]