The police investigation into the assassination attempt Wednesday night on Temple Mount activist Rabbi Yehuda Glick indicates the gunman acted alone and was not following the orders of a terrorist group, a senior Jerusalem police official told WND.
The official spoke only on background, because the police investigation is ongoing.
Sources within the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad terrorist organization told WND the shooting was not orchestrated by their group even though members of organization took responsibility.
As WND reported, Glick said last week violence on the Temple Mount "is escalating every day, and the police are simply helpless."
TRENDING: America's most dangerous demographic
"Police impotence leads to violence," he said, predicting the situation would change only after an act of violence against Jews.
"When will the change take place?" he told Haaretz. "As soon as the Arabs harm someone on the Temple Mount, the prime minister will wake up and it will be too late."
Glick, chairman of the Temple Mount Heritage Foundation, appeared in the new documentary released by WND Films, "End Times Eyewitness," directed by Joel Richardson.
On Thursday, Israeli security forces killed the suspected shooter of Glick, identified as 32-year-old Islamic Jihad member Moataz Hejazi.
"End Times Eyewitness" takes you to the front lines of the historic upheaval in the Middle East
An Internet video shows Israeli forces closing in on Hejazi in Jerusalem’s Abu Tor neighborhood. The gunman was killed in an ensuing shootout.
Israeli media reports say Hejazi worked as a kitchen hand in the Begin Heritage Center’s restaurant.
Glick was shot in front of the center after giving a speech inside about the Temple Mount. Hejazi reportedly completed his shift work before attempting to assassinate Glick from a motorbike and then fleeing the scene.
Knesset Member Moshe Feiglin witnessed the shooting.
“The attempted murderer turned to him and confirmed in Hebrew, in a heavy Arabic accent, that it was Yehuda,” Feiglin told reporters.
Feiglin said that at the time of the shooting, Glick was loading equipment into his car after the Temple Mount conference.
Glick is being treated at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem where he is listed in serious but stable condition.
In response to the shooting, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich and Jerusalem Police Chief Moshe Edri ordered the closing of the Temple Mount to both Jews and Arabs until further notice.
Security was beefed up around the mount and through ought eastern Jerusalem.
Glick is the chairman of the Temple Mount Heritage Foundation, an umbrella of Israel’s major Temple Mount activist groups, which call for an increased Jewish presence on the mount.
Currently, non-Muslim prayer on the mount is banned, and Jewish and Christian visitations in restricted to only a few hours per day whereas Muslims usually have 24-hour access and full prayer rights.
In the interview with Richardson for "End Times Eyewitness," Glick spoke passionately of the prospects for rebuilding the Temple. He said it was even possible that the existing Dome of the Rock Muslim shrine could be incorporated into the rebuilt Temple, but only one ingredient was missing – an Islamic faith that would be tolerant of Christians and Jews and willing to live in peace.
Glick said that because Islam worshiped one god, he could see a time when all three monotheistic religions could worship together in the Temple, as long as there was an understanding of tolerance and peace.
"One house for all of those who are out to say 'God is one, his name is one,'" Glick told Richardson in the documentary film. "This is the dream. The Dome of the Rock has a strong potential to be that because it’s in the right location, it represents a religion faithful to one God. It only needs one more thing: agree to religious tolerance and peace among faithful people."
Glick was born in the United States and moved to Israel with his parents as a young child.