EXCLUSIVE: Jerusalem killer’s gun raises terror network fears - The Jewish Chronicle

The weapon used by a Hamas gunman to murder Eli Kay in the Jerusalem terror attack on Sunday was a Beretta M12 as used by the Palestinian Authority, sources in Israel have told the JC.

The claim comes after repeated warnings of the dangers of weapons provided under the Oslo Accords being misused to attack civilians.

Earlier reports had said that Hamas terrorist Fadi Abu Shkhaydam had been using a home-made gun known as a ‘Carlo’, based on pictures seen of him in which he posed with a weapon.

However, it is now understood that he had fired a Beretta, as used by the PA and also the Jordanian government, raising disturbing questions about how Shkhaydam obtained his weapon, whether it was smuggled to him or purchased through the black market.

Homemade weapons are unreliable and often fail. The Beretta is highly accurate and one of the world’s leading firearms.

The attacked claimed the life of Eli Kay, who had emigrated from South Africa to join the IDF as a paratrooper before becoming an Israeli citizen. The 26-year-old had been on his way to work as a tour guide for visitors to the Western Wall when he was fired upon.

He was taken away by paramedics but pronounced dead at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus.

Eli — whose grandfather, Shlomo Levin, is the rabbi of South Hampstead United Synagogue — was the first civilian to be killed in Israel by terrorists since the conflict with Hamas in May.

On Monday, thousands of mourners turned out for his funeral in Jerusalem, where a government minister called him “the best of the best”.

Shkhaydam, 42, wounded four other victims — including two policemen — before he was shot dead by two female officers who rushed to the scene.

Initial reports claimed that the gunman was disguised as an Orthodox Jew while carrying out his attack, but these were later discounted.

Hamas has claimed responsibility, saying the “heroic operation” was a warning to “stop the attacks on our lands and our holy sites”.

Shkhaydam was a member of the Hamas political wing, which the UK government has said should be banned as a terror group to match the group’s military wing.

Asked about the use of a gun that may have originated from the PA, security expert Dan Dyker at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs said:

“It’s not an isolated incident. The security protocols of the Oslo Accords have been violated constantly.

“This has been going on for almost three decades. We also know weapons have been stolen from the IDF and then sold to terrorist forces.”

Mr Diker said that whatever the origin of the gun, the attack in Jerusalem should be seen in the wider context of a struggle for power between Hamas and PA leader Mahmoud Abbas, whose meeting with Israeli defence minister Benny Gantz a month ago is said to have infuriated the jihadist organisation.

He said: “Hamas over the past four or five months have used the Jerusalem issue, the Al Aqsa mosque, in the Temple Mount complex, to trigger massive violence in Gaza in the West Bank and even inside some cities in sovereign Israel in May.

“Hamas has been highly motivated to trigger these bouts of violence and to embarrass the PA as far as possible in order to try to win over the street to its side, and a wider signal to other jihadi organisations.”

Mr Diker said that on recent visits to the West Bank he had been told by PA officials that people are moving away from support for armed attack and instead are interested in employment, good education and medical care, as the model of the economic benefits of the Abraham Accords rubs off on sectors of Arab society. He added that Hamas is now engaged in a struggle against this move towards normalisation.

Asked about the vote in the House of Commons on whether the political wing of Hamas should be proscribed, he said: “Anyone in London who believes there is a difference between the political wing and the terror wing has allowed himself to be kidnapped by political warfare.

“It is simply inaccurate to believe there is a responsible non-violent political leadership that is differentiated from the military leadership in Gaza.

“Hamas is jihadi organisation that is bent on killing Jews according to its own charter.

“You would do very well to rid yourself in Europe of that fundamental inaccuracy.”