Israeli security forces were on the highest level of alert Friday. Within this framework, Israel beefed up security around Jerusalem on Friday for fear of violence after a Palestinian gunman killed eight Israeli students at one of the city's most prominent Jewish religious schools. The gunman, identified as an East Jerusalem resident, was shot dead after opening fire with an automatic rifle at students inside the library at the "Merkaz Harav Yeshiva" (seminary.)
Hamas praised the "heroic operation" and it was greeted with celebrations in Gaza Strip. Israel called Thursday's night shooting a "massacre" but said peace talks would continue with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Israel deployed thousands of police in Jerusalem, spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, and limited Palestinian access to Friday prayers at the al-Aqsa mosque, Reuters reported.
Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, called on Abbas to do more to rein in "militants." "They have clear obligations to act against terrorist cells, to act against the infrastructure of terrorism," Regev said. "While we understand they have limitations on their capabilities today, we believe that they could be doing much more and it is incumbent upon them to do so," he said.
U.S. President George W. Bush offered his condolences to Olmert. "I told him the United States stands firmly with Israel in the face of this terrible attack," Bush said in a statement.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Britain also condemned the killings. The United States accused Libya, backed by several other countries, of preventing the U.N. Security Council from condemning the assault as a "terrorist attack".
A member of the Libyan delegation said the council should not speak about the Jerusalem attack while ignoring the events in the Gaza Strip.
Early Friday, a Palestinian farmer was shot and killed in the northern Gaza Strip near the border with Israel. Palestinian medics said the man died by Israeli fire.
