Six killed by Palestinian gunmen at Jerusalem bus stop

Six people have been killed and eight others wounded by Palestinian gunmen in one of the deadliest shooting attacks in Jerusalem in the past few years.

Israeli police said “two terrorists arrived in a vehicle” and opened fire towards a bus stop at Ramot Junction, on the city’s northern outskirts. An off-duty soldier and a civilian returned fire, “neutralising” the attackers, it added.

Israeli media identified the dead as five men, aged between 25 and 79, and a 60-year-old woman. Local hospitals said two of the wounded were in a serious condition.

There was no immediate claim from any armed groups, although Hamas praised the attack.

During a visit to the scene, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters that Israel was in “an intense war against terrorism on several fronts”.

Israeli security forces had thwarted hundreds of attacks in the occupied West Bank this year, “but, unfortunately, not this morning”, he said.

“We are now engaged in pursuit and are cordoning off the villages from which the murderers came. We will apprehend whoever aided and dispatched them, and we will take even stronger steps,” he added.

The Israeli military said soldiers were encircling Palestinian villages on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Ramallah to “thwart terrorism and strengthen the defence effort”.

Monday’s attack took place at the end of the morning rush hour at the Ramot Junction.

Israeli police spokesman Lt Dean Elsdunne said: “The terrorists arrived by vehicle… and deliberately opened fire on a number of civilians who were waiting at that busy bus stop to start their day.

“A number of armed civilians who were at the scene acted immediately. They engaged by returning fire and they killed those two terrorists on the spot.”

He added that officers had recovered “several weapons, ammunition and a knife” used by the attackers, who Israeli media said were believed to have set out from the West Bank villages of al-Qubeiba and Qatanna, about 10km (6 miles) west of Ramot Junction.

Dashcam video shared by the Israeli foreign ministry showed dozens of men, women and children running from a bus shelter and a stationary bus as the sound of gunfire rang out.

The windscreen of a second bus behind shatters as the gunfire continues, before what appear to be armed civilians approach the scene.

“Suddenly I hear the shots starting… I felt like I was running for an eternity,” Ester Lugasi, one of the injured, told Israeli TV from hospital. “I thought I was going to die.”

Daniel Katzenstein, a first responder with the United Hatzalah emergency medical service, arrived shortly after the attack and treated one of the bus drivers at the scene.

“His name was Mohammed,” Mr Katzenstein told the BBC. “He also ran to help. This is not a battle of Islam versus Judaism, this is a battle between the people who wish to do harm, and the people who want to live life.”

Israeli media identified the five men who were killed as Yaakov Pinto, 25, Yisrael Matzner, 28, and Rabbi Yosef David, 43, Mordechai “Mark” Steinsag, 79 and Levi Yitzhak Pash.

The dead woman was named as Sarah Mendelson, 60.

In a statement posted on social media, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said: “Innocent citizens, children and adults, were murdered and injured in cold blood on a bus in the streets of a city at the hands of evil terrorists.

“The shocking attack reminds us time and again that we are fighting absolute evil,” he added. “The world must understand what we are facing.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said he “strongly condemned the terrorist attack”, while the new UK Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper, said she was “horrified by the terrorist attack”.

The Palestinian presidency “reiterated its firm position rejecting and condemning any targeting of Palestinian and Israeli civilians, and denouncing all forms of violence and terrorism regardless of their source”, the official Wafa news agency reported.

Hamas praised what it called the “heroic and exceptional operation by two Palestinian resistance fighters”.

Without admitting it had organised the attack, Hamas said it was a “natural response to the crimes of the occupation [Israel] and the genocide it is waging against our people”.

The group has been fighting a war with Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip for almost two years, triggered by its attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023.

Israeli security forces have been on high alert in Israel and the West Bank since then, and there have been relatively few attacks of this kind in the Jerusalem area.

In November 2023, three Israelis were killed when two Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a bus stop in West Jerusalem in an attack that was claimed by Hamas.

Monday’s shooting comes at a critical moment with the Israeli military intensifying attacks in Gaza City. At the same time, Israel and Hamas are said to be weighing new proposals for a ceasefire and hostage deal put forward by the White House.