Police are searching for the person who hurled an Israeli army-issue grenade into a Jerusalem marketplace on Monday, killing a 70-year-old Arab shopkeeper and wounding 12 others.
And they have not ruled out the possibility that the perpetrator is Jewish.
An Arab shopkeeper said he saw two men loitering near the site of the blast in Jerusalem’s Old City shortly before the incident. He suspected that one of the men threw the grenade; both quickly disappeared from the scene immediately after the explosion.
A reporter at the newspaper Hadashot received a call warning of the attack from a man claiming to represent the right-wing Kach movement, Israel Radio reported. The same person called to claim responsibility for Kach after the grenade was hurled at the Butchers Market.
News reports said the caller linked the attack to the second anniversary of the slaying of Kach leader Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York.
A police spokesman said investigators were looking into this aspect of the case, but refused to say at this state whether it was the only or the likeliest lead.
Jerusalem Police Chief Haim Albaldes said he did not rule out Jewish responsibility for the attack, which occurred near houses taken over by Jews in the nearby Moslem Quarter.
Fearing Arab reprisals for the attack, police beefed up patrols, especially in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.
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