2017 Har Adar shooting

On the morning of 26 September 2017, a Palestinian gunman opened fire on Israeli security guards at the entrance gate of Har Adar, an Israeli settlement and residential community near Jerusalem located largely on the West Bank side of the Green Line. Three Israeli security guards were killed and a fourth man was injured. The gunman was shot dead by the remaining guards. Israeli authorities described the attack as an "act of terrorism."

Har Adar was originally built adjacent to the Green Line but has expanded over time so that it now sits largely within the West Bank. Approximately 200 Palestinian workers enter the town daily through the gate where the attack occurred, part of a broader system in which roughly 100,000 Palestinians hold permits to work in Israel and Israeli settlements, mostly as manual laborers.

The attack occurred as the gunman approached an entrance guarded by a border policeman and two civilian security guards. Those killed were border policeman Solomon Gavriyah, 20, of Be'er Ya'akov; and civilian security guards Youssef Ottman, 25, of Abu Ghosh; and Or Arish, 25, of Har Adar. A fourth man, the head civilian security officer of Har Adar, was injured. Prior to the shooting, two activists from the group Machsom Watch approached the checkpoint, prompting Gavriyah to leave his post and ask them to step away. Police reported that one activist told Gavriyah, who was Ethiopian-Israeli, "You are a disgrace," a statement the activist later denied making. The attacker began shooting after Gavriyah returned to his post.

The attacker was identified as Nimer Mahmoud Ahmad Jamal, a 37-year-old father of four from the nearby village of Beit Surik, who held a permit to work in Israeli settlements. An initial inquiry found that Jamal had been experiencing significant personal and family difficulties, including reported domestic violence; his wife had reportedly left for Jordan several weeks earlier after he assaulted her, leaving him with their children. Minutes before the attack, Jamal sent his wife a Facebook Messenger message apologizing for what he was about to do and expressing regret over having been, in his words, a poor husband. In a separate Facebook post made just before the attack, he wrote that he "feared no one but God." On 15 November 2017, the Israeli military demolished Jamal's house in Beit Surik.

The attack drew a range of domestic and international reactions. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attributed the attack to Palestinian incitement. Hamas praised the killings, while Fatah's official Facebook page referred to the attacker as a "martyr." The European Union and the United Nations Middle East peace envoy condemned the attack and criticized glorification of the violence. France's ambassador to Israel and its Foreign Ministry condemned the attack and offered condolences. The United States Embassy in Tel Aviv and the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem issued a joint statement condemning the attack and any statements glorifying terrorism.