Tel Aviv, 28 January 2023 (dpa/MIA) – Israeli police took 42 people into custody for questioning following the attack outside a synagogue in East Jerusalem that killed seven people on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Those being detained are relatives and neighbours of the deceased 21-year-old attacker, the police said on Saturday.

Several others were injured when the man opened fire at people leaving the synagogue in the Israeli settlement of Neve Yaakov on Friday night.

The officers killed the assailant at the scene as security forces swept the area.

The situation between Israelis and Palestinians has been increasingly tense since a series of attacks last year.

Nine Palestinians were killed and 20 others injured in clashes with Israeli soldiers in Jenin in the West Bank on Thursday.

Israel had said the operation was carried out in order to arrest members of the militant Islamic Jihad group.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet was due to meet on Saturday evening.