JERUSALEM — In a bold attack outside a site sacred to Muslims and Jews, three Israeli Arabs armed with a pistol and homemade machine guns shot and killed two Israeli police officers early Friday at the entrance to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
The three assailants were then chased into the courtyard of the mosque complex, where they were shot and killed by Israeli security forces, authorities said.
Hours after the early-morning shootout, Israeli forces still blocked access to the mosque area because of security concerns.
The rare closure marked the first time in years that Israeli authorities stopped Muslims of all ages from attending Friday prayers at the holy site.
Israel’s domestic security service, Shin Bet, said the three attackers were Israeli citizens from an Arab town in northern Israel called Umm al-Fahm and that they shared the same last name, suggesting they may have been related.
The two dead Israeli Border Police officers were members of Israel’s small Druze community. Kamil Shnaan, 22, was the son of a former parliamentarian. Hael Sathawi, 30, left behind a wife and a 3-week-old son.
The Druze follow an offshoot of Shiite Islam and are seen by some Sunni militant factions as apostates.
Police said the assault began just after 7 a.m. close to the Lion’s Gate into the Old City, near one of the entrances to the complex that holds al-Aqsa Mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock, an ancient esplanade revered by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and by Jews as the Temple Mount.
The site is a scene of frequent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces, but not shootouts involving multiple fatalities.
Israeli police released a security-camera clip that showed one of the attackers rushing toward an Israeli Border Police officer and shooting him in the back.
A photograph published on one of attacker’s Facebook pages a day before the assault shows two of the gunmen posing for a selfie in front of the Dome of the Rock at the complex. The caption reads, “Tomorrow our smiles will be sweeter.”
Israeli officials identified the attackers as Muhammad Ahmed Jabarin, 29; Muhammad Hamid Jabarin, 19; and Muhammad Ahmed Mufdal Jabarin, 19. Arabs constitute 20 percent of the Israeli population.
After the attack, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas placed a telephone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, “Abbas expressed his strong rejection and condemnation of the fatal shootout that took place near Al Aqsa mosque, as well as his rejection of any violent incidents from any side, especially in places of worship.”
Jerusalem’s chief of police, Yoram Halevi, canceled Friday prayers at the mosque and ordered the complex cleared and the entrances shut. The narrow alleys around the mosque were filled with Israeli police and soldiers.
During the phone call, Abbas “called on Netanyahu to end the closure imposed on the holy site, warning of the consequences of such measures.”
In a statement, Netanyahu said Friday’s closure was for security reasons and did not represent a change in what is called the “status quo” agreement about the care, custody and access to the religious site.
The Associated Press reported that a top Muslim cleric at al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Hussein, was brought in for questioning at the Israeli police station in the Old City, according to his son.
“We insist on reaching the al-Aqsa Mosque and performing prayers there,” Hussein said.
Before his detention, Hussein told the Palestinian news agency Maan that it was the first time that Israel had put a blanket block on Muslims performing Friday prayers at al-Aqsa since 1967.
Israeli reporters said the last time the mosque was closed for Friday prayers was 1990.
Several times before, Israeli authorities have imposed restrictions on Muslims entering the mosque area, including temporarily banning men under 50 in 2014 during a period of heightened violence.
Israeli police said the three assailants were armed with a knife, a pistol and two homemade machine guns, the type manufactured in clandestine workshops in the West Bank. These kinds of weapons have been used in attacks in recent years, including a mass shooting in 2016 at a Tel Aviv food court where four people were killed.
Soon after the attack, Netanyahu called a meeting of his top security ministers as condemnations against the assault poured in.
The U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, tweeted: “Shocked and horrified by the despicable attack today in Jerusalem. Terrorism must be condemned by all and defeated. We pray for the victims.”
Disney officially kicked off D23, its three-day biennial fan convention, with as starry a start as can be imagined — the induction of 11 artists from across the company’s history into its esteemed Disney Legends hall of fame, including the late Carrie Fisher, her Star Wars costar Mark Hamill, and talk-show legend and A Wrinkle in Time star Oprah Winfrey.
Fisher’s daughter, Billie Lourd, could not attend the ceremony but sent a letter (read aloud by Disney CEO and event emcee, Bob Iger) that sang the praises of her and her mother’s lifelong fanaticism of Disney. “We went to Disneyland so much that I now realize that she might have even loved it more than I did,” wrote Lourd. “So becoming a part of the Disney family was truly an amazing moment for her. She secretly always wanted to be a Disney princess, so getting to be a Disney princess and a Disney legend would have been her ultimate dream.”
Hamill then shared a long story of his reverence for Disney: “Disney provided me a tutorial of how I could make my dreams come true by lifting the curtain. I hadn’t even started grade school when I saw Clarence Nash recording a Donald Duck cartoon and a lightbulb went off in my head! This man gets up every morning, kisses his wife goodbye, drives to the studio, and makes Donald Duck cartoons. I want that job! Unfortunately, I do a horrible Donald Duck. But the ‘making of’ aspect of the Disney programs… he lifted the curtain. No other studio did that. And in my young brain, I thought, there’s a path to achieve what I want. So I am forever grateful for that learning process that was provided by Walt Disney.”
Lucasfilm Ltd./courtesy Everett Collection
The Star Wars actor, who will reprise his role as Luke Skywalker in December’s The Last Jedi, also honored his former onscreen sibling, who died in December at age 60. “I would love to give my deepest respects for the super cool space sis I have in Carrie Frances Fisher,” he said. “I loved her. And we were like siblings. The good and the bad! We’d have huge fights and not speak to one another. But we loved each other, and what a great thrill it was to come back in The Force Awakens at that time in our lives. There was a comfort level with each other. We could rely on each other. And there was a deep respect. I know if she was here this morning, she would have flipped me the bird at least twice already, so thank you all so much. I’m so humbled and so grateful, and I love you all. Thank you.”
In addition to Fisher, Winfrey was also honored at the event. The 63-year-old was cited for her work in ABC daytime television and well beyond. She took the stage with an enthusiastic hello and recalled a story from her dinner the night before: “As I was there, sitting alone, I had time to talk to my waiter, whose name was Steve. I was getting Steve’s story, and I was saying, ‘Tell me, how long have you worked here?’ And Steve said, ’42 years’… and I said, ‘How did you stay at this company for 42 years?’ And he said, ‘I found it to be the best place to let me be me.’ And I feel the same way about my work with Disney since 1984, launching The Oprah Winfrey Show. Every day, Disney ABC-7 let me be me. It was an honor, and I feel that more than anything, being a legend, more than being a celebrity or being awarded for notoriety, that really a legend is about the common experience that we all hold and share, and every day, on that show, I was able to tell our common story.”
Garry Marshall, the esteemed director of film (Pretty Woman) and TV (Happy Days, Mork Mindy), died earlier this year but was honored for his work within the ABC/Disney family by his children. “I know our dad’s up there right now and I’m sure he’s thinking, ‘Oy, you’re following Oprah — good luck,’” his son joked.
Elswhere in the ceremony, comic icons Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, as well as Manuel Gonzales (a key figure in the publishing of Mickey Mouse Sunday comics) and prolific animator Clyde Geronimi (the director of Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty, Lady and the Tramp, 101Dalmatians, and more) were honored as part of the Disney “Legends of Pen and Paint.”
While Kirby, Gonzales, and Geronimi’s children accepted on behalf of their fathers, Lee was in the audience and offered his own remarks, first getting emotional about the tribute to his longtime creative partner, Jack Kirby, before explaining his own childhood connection to Walt Disney: “I’ll go back a few years to a teenage boy. Not even a teenager. A kid around 8 or 10, who loved to read everything he could get his hands on. In those days, he read The Hardy Boys, Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes. Little books he could buy inexpensively. One day in a bookstore, he saw a book that was an expensive book. It was what they would have called a coffee table book. It was called The Art of Walt Disney. I was that boy. And I couldn’t afford the book. And it drove me crazy. I wanted that book so badly. I saved my pennies, and after a few months, I bought The Art of Walt Disney. I loved that book so. I loved Walt Disney so. To me, he was more than a man. He was an inspiration. He was something to reach for, to be like him. And to think that today, I’m standing here in the house that Disney built, and we’ve paid tribute to Jack, and now we’re talking about all the things of Disney’s, it is so thrilling, I can’t tell you, and I thank you all.”
In the first of several surprises over the weekend, Whoopi Goldberg was revealed as a surprise inductee. The Sister Act and Lion King legend showed off her Minnie Mouse pumps and shared memories of her first trip to Disneyland: “When you live in the projects and you had a black and white TV, you knew what you were going to see every week. Every Sunday, The Wonderful World of Disney would come on. I was born the same year the park opened, so I’ve always felt like it was home. And my mother always said, ‘You know, one day, I’m gonna take you kids.’ As a parent, that’s what you want to do. And instead, I got to take her. For me, that meant we were okay, because Disney made you feel that no matter where you came from, you were welcome.”
Finally, the panel ended with final honors going to Julie Taymor, the Tony-winning, record-breaking director of The Lion King on Broadway (which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year). Before introducing a surprise performance from her cast that ended the show, Taymor shared an emotional story that illustrated not only her experience with Lion King but the sentiment that many Disney artists echo: “There was a family that bought tickets for themselves and their two children. They bought them way in advance. And that year, unfortunately, the little girl died. And her younger brother was waiting to see the show, but the family didn’t want to go. They’d been in mourning for a month, but everybody encouraged them to take this child and go see The Lion King. So they [do], and they come to the point where Simba asks his father if he’ll always be there for him. And Mufasa says to the child, ‘Look at the stars. The great kings of the past look down upon us from those stars. They live in you. They live in me. They’re watching over everything we see.’ And that child, that little boy, turned to his parents at that point during the drama, during the song, and he said, “Sarah’s with us, isn’t she? She’s with us.” Now when I hear that, I think that’s when we’re doing our job.”
The inductees will have their names enshrined in Legends Plaza on the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California. The full list, and their area of contribution to Disney, is as follows:
