HAR ADAR, West Bank — Each weekday scores of Palestinians from the surrounding West Bank villages line up at a yellow metal barrier on the edge of Har Adar, an affluent Israeli border community, awaiting entry for work. That quiet routine was disrupted on Tuesday when one worker opened fire, killing three Israeli security personnel and wounding a fourth.

The attacker, a resident of the neighboring Palestinian village of Beit Surik who had regularly worked in Har Adar, was armed with a pistol, according to the police, and was fatally shot at the scene.

The victims were identified as a border police officer, Sgt. Solomon Gavria, 20, from Beer Yaakov in central Israel, and two civilian security guards, Yusuf Othman of the nearby Arab-Israeli village of Abu Gosh and Or Arish of Har Adar.

Nestled in the pastoral hills northwest of Jerusalem, Har Adar straddles the 1967 boundary, most of it in the occupied West Bank. Known for its patchwork of peaceful communities and daily cooperation and coexistence between Jews and Arabs, the Israeli authorities refer to the area as the “seamline.”

Dozens of Israelis have been killed in a wave of Palestinian stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks that broke out two years ago. In a spate of violence in late July linked to renewed tensions over a Jerusalem holy site, three members of an Israeli family were fatally stabbed in their home in another West Bank settlement, and four Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli security forces in and around Jerusalem.

The attack on Tuesday shattered weeks of relative calm. While most of the assailants have been young, single Palestinians, often unemployed, the gunman, identified by the authorities as Nimer Mahmoud Ahmed Jamal, 37, did not fit that profile. A father of four, Mr. Jamal had an Israeli-issued permit allowing him to work in Har Adar.

Mr. Jamal’s motives appeared to be more personal than ideological. A preliminary investigation indicated that Mr. Jamal “had significant personal and family problems, including those regarding family violence,” Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency said in a statement. The agency added that Mr. Jamal’s wife fled to Jordan weeks ago, leaving him with their children.

In a private Facebook message to his wife that was later shared on social networks and in the news media Mr. Jamal asked her forgiveness and said she had been a good wife and mother.

“I am to blame for mistreating her,” he wrote, citing what he called his “foolish jealousy.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel vowed that the assailant’s house would be demolished and that his relatives’ work permits would be revoked.

“This murderous attack is the result, inter alia, of systematic incitement of the Palestinian Authority, and of other elements,” Mr. Netanyahu added in broadcast remarks at the start of a cabinet meeting.

Fatah, the mainstream Palestinian movement led by President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, posted an image on its official Facebook page of a poster of Mr. Jamal hailing him as a “heroic martyr.” Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls the Palestinian coastal territory of Gaza, also praised the attack on Twitter.

The United States Embassy in Tel Aviv and Consulate General in Jerusalem issued a joint statement in English and Arabic saying, “We condemn in the strongest possible terms today’s horrific attack in Har Adar. We also condemn statements glorifying terrorism and call on all to send a clear message that terrorism must never be tolerated.”

Tens of thousands of Palestinian laborers enter Israel on a daily basis, with or without permits. Many come to work in home renovations, hotels and other service jobs in Nataf, Maaleh Hahamisha, Qiryat Anavim and other Israeli communities in the vicinity of Har Adar and Abu Gosh.

Israeli Jews flock to Abu Gosh, which sits on the Israeli side of the 1967 line, on weekends to shop and eat in the restaurants. Jawdat Ibrahim, a local celebrity who won the jackpot of millions of dollars in the Illinois State Lottery in 1990, then returned to his hometown, said the area was known for “normal life.”

Sitting in the Abu Gosh Restaurant, which he owns, he said, “There is no difference between Abu Gosh, Nataf and Har Adar.”

In Har Adar, parents left work early to pick up their children from school and hugged each other in the streets. Hours after the attack, several said they were focused on getting back to routine. One resident, Michal Avidor, told Israel Radio that Mr. Jamal had cleaned her house once a week for the past two and a half years and described him as a pleasant, smiling man and “nothing out of the ordinary.”



“I don’t know how to tell my children that for two and a half years a terrorist worked in our house,” she said.

Most of the Palestinian workers who had already entered Har Adar on Tuesday were sent home early. Yaron Arnon, the secretary and treasurer of Har Adar’s council, said it would be up to the security authorities to decide when to allow them back but added, “Nothing will change from our perspective.”

Yael Cohen, 42, a mother of three who holds workshops for healthy cooking, said a Palestinian man from another neighboring village had been cleaning her home since she moved to Har Adar 10 years ago. Ms. Cohen said he had called her on Tuesday morning, from another house where he was working, and asked her for money, worried that he would not be able to get back in to work for a while. She said she took over some money “because I care about him, and I hope he cares about us.”

Ms. Cohen said she did not know the assailant personally but she did know Mr. Othman, the security guard from Abu Gosh who was killed. Mr. Othman had tried to protect the residents of Har Adar, she said, but “we did not manage to look after him.”