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Israel police seal home of Palestinian synagogue gunman as Benjamin Netanyahu announces plans to make it easier for Israelis to carry guns

Israeli police have sealed off the home of a Palestinian gunman in East Jerusalem, two days after he killed seven people outside a synagogue.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to make it easier for Israelis to carry guns after the synagogue shooting, the deadliest attack against Israelis in years.

Friday's attack outside a synagogue in East Jerusalem came a day after Israel's military launched its deadliest raid in the West Bank in years, in the city of Jenin.

On Saturday, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy shot at a group of Israeli civilians in Jerusalem, wounding two before one of them shot and wounded him.

On Sunday, residents of a Palestinian village outside Ramallah in the West Bank said a group from a nearby Israeli settlement had burned one house and smashed doors and windows of another.

Mr Netanyahu said making it easier for Israelis to get permits to carry guns would reduce violence. 

"We have seen, time and again … that heroic, armed and trained civilians save lives," he said.

Israeli authorities welded shut the doors and sealed the windows of the family home of Friday's synagogue shooter, Khaire Alkam, whose grandfather, the family said, was killed by an Israeli 25 years ago.

In a change of policy, Mr Netanyahu's government also allowed the family house of Saturday's 13-year-old shooter to be sealed, even though no-one had been killed.

The government also announced moves to strengthen settlements in the occupied West Bank, and to revoke the residency rights of relatives of Palestinians who carry out attacks.

"While we will not hesitate to act against terrorism, we wish to regain calm and stability on the ground," Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due in Jerusalem and the West Bank this week for his first visit since Mr Netanyahu returned to power at the helm of a coalition that includes the far right.

Mr Blinken's visit looks set to be dominated by efforts to prevent the violence spinning out of control.

A Palestinian gunman died on Sunday of wounds from Thursday's raid in Jenin, raising the death toll from that raid to 10, including two civilians.

At least 34 Palestinian fighters and civilians have been killed this month in West Bank clashes with Israeli security forces.

Israel says the incursions are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks. The Palestinians say they further entrench Israel's 55-year, open-ended occupation of lands they seek for their future state.

Last year was the deadliest in more than a decade for West Bank Palestinian civilians and militants, with violence steadily escalating following a spate of lethal Palestinian attacks in Israel.

Israel sending more troops to West Bank

Friday's synagogue shooting presents a challenge to Mr Netanyahu, who returned to power in December, promising to make Israelis safer after Palestinian street attacks last year.

Sworn in a month ago, Mr Netanyahu's government has prioritised settlement building on lands the Palestinians seek for a state, though it has not yet taken major steps on the ground.

Awad Abu Samra, whose brother's house in the village of Turmus Ayya was damaged on Sunday, said Israeli settlers were now attacking local farmers "almost every week or so".

"They attack anything that belongs to the Palestinians," he said. 

The Israeli military said on Saturday it was sending additional troops into the West Bank, although there was no sign Israel was preparing for a large-scale military operation.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has not commented on Friday's attack.

On Saturday he blamed Israel for the violence.

Police said the synagogue gunman, who was shot dead by officers as he tried to flee the scene, had acted alone.

Most of the international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which Israel has occupied since a 1967 war, to be illegal under international law.

Reuters/ABC

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