Police: Palestinian behind Jerusalem shooting

Police were searching Saturday for a gunman who wounded two Israeli policemen on patrol in Jerusalem's Old City, in what officials described as a nationalist attack by a Palestinian.

The shooting, which took place just before midnight Friday at Lion's Gate, was captured on a security camera, but the assailant's face was not visible in the darkness, Israel Radio said. The gunman fled to a nearby cemetery and apparently was not hit by police fire, the radio said.

In Jerusalem, green-clad Israeli security forces rounded up Palestinian men overnight in an Arab neighborhood close to the Old City, forcing some to lie on the ground stripped to their underwear while others stood against walls. Red police tape crisscrossed the Lion's Gate entrance, barring people from entry.

On Saturday morning, traffic crawled to a halt outside a main Israeli checkpoint between Jerusalem and the West Bank, apparently as authorities searched for the perpetrator.

Also Saturday, Palestinians fired a rocket into Israel from Gaza, the army said, a violation of a three-week-old truce between Gaza's Hamas rulers and Israel.

The attack in Jerusalem was the sixth since the beginning of the year. It came just a week after an Arab construction worker went on a rampage with a huge earth moving vehicle, killing three Israelis before he was shot dead. In March, a Palestinian from Jerusalem shot and killed eight Israelis in an attack on a Jewish seminary in the city.

Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen said he did not believe the recent attacks were related. Several years ago, at the height of the second Palestinian uprising, Jerusalem was hit hard by Palestinian suicide bombers sent by militant groups. However, some of the recent attacks in the city appeared to be the acts of individuals.

"We don't see a connection between these events," said Cohen. "At the moment, it was an isolated event."

About two-thirds of Jerusalem's 750,000 residents are Jews. The rest are Palestinians who came under Israeli control when Israel captured their part of the city in 1967.

Unlike their counterparts in the West Bank, Palestinian residents of Jerusalem enjoy freedom of movement and Israeli welfare benefits. But they also complain of official discrimination in the allocation of budgets and services and are struggling to obtain permits to build houses.

Meanwhile, Israel's army said Gaza militants fired a rocket into Israel in violation of a cease-fire that took effect June 19. The rocket landed in an open area. There were no reports of injuries.

There was no claim of responsibility for the rocket attack.

Hamas officials say they are trying to enforce the truce and it appears smaller opposition groups are mainly involved in truce violations.

On Thursday, Israeli troops shot and killed an 18-year-old member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a Hamas rival, on the Gaza border. Al Aqsa has said it would avenge the death.

Despite the sporadic violence, neither side has said it's walking away from the truce.