A Palestinian gunman shot at least eight people dead in the library of a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem on Thursday evening, in the worst terrorist attack the city had seen in four years. Ten other students in the religious education center were injured, three of them seriously.
An army spokeswoman said Defense Minister Ehud Barak had ordered the military to close off the border with the West Bank for a few days until security forces reevaluate the situation. Road blocks have been set up along the border.
Thousands of police were deployed and a security lockdown placed across Jerusalem as crowds of mourners gathered for the funerals of the eight students.
Police across the country were ordered to boost their alert level for fear of additional attacks. Border guards were also ordered to raise their deployment.
Eyewitnesses said the gunman entered the building concealing an automatic rifle and pistol in a cardboard box, made his way to the library, and fired from both weapons before an off-duty soldier shot the attacker dead.
Islamist militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, did not claim responsibility for the killing, but spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the group "blesses the heroic operation in Jerusalem, which was a natural reaction to the Zionist massacre."
The leaders of Israel, most world powers, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack, but the United Nations Security Council failed to issue a condemnation due to opposition from Libya.
According to Israeli defense officials, the gunman was from Arab-dominated East Jerusalem. Residents of the area are able to travel to any part of Israel, a right denied to Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The attack came just after a visit to Israel by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in which she persuaded the Palestinian leader to resume peace talks with Israel. Abbas had broken off the negotiations in protest against Israeli military's offensive in Gaza.
The death toll in the rabbinical center is Jerusalem's worst since the bus bombing of January 29, 2004 that killed 11 people, and Israel's most severe since the Tel Aviv suicide bombing of April 17, 2006, which also took 11 lives.
