7 hours ago
5
Palestinian attackers opened fire at a crowded bus stop in the northern outskirts of Jerusalem, killing six people and injuring 12 others, Israeli officials have said.
Police said two gunmen targeted people waiting for a bus at a busy intersection during the morning rush hour on Monday before being shot dead by an off-duty soldier and a civilian who were at the scene.
The ambulance service identified five of the victims as a 50-year-old man, a woman in her 50s and three men in their 30s, adding that 11 other people had suffered injuries, including six who were in a serious condition with gunshot wounds.
The Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Saar, later said a sixth person had died and that the gunmen were Palestinians from the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Speaking while on a visit to Hungary, he described a “terrible terror attack”, adding: “We are in a war with radical Islamist terrorism. Europe and the international community, every country, must now make a clear choice. Are they on Israel’s side, or are they on the side of the jihadists?”
Hundreds of members of the security forces were deployed at the scene to search for additional attackers or explosives that could have been planted around the area. The Israeli military said it was encircling Palestinian villages on the outskirts of the nearby West Bank city of Ramallah in response to the attack.
Hamas praised two Palestinian “resistance fighters” who it said had carried out the attack but stopped short of claiming responsibility. Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian militant group, also praised the shooting without claiming responsibility.
The war in Gaza has sparked a surge of violence in both the occupied West Bank and Israel. Palestinian militants have attacked and killed Israelis in Israel and the West Bank, while there has also been a steep rise in settler violence against Palestinians.
Data from the UN’s humanitarian office says at least 49 Israelis have been killed by Palestinians in Israel or the West Bank between the start of the war and July 2025. In that time, Israeli forces and civilians killed at least 968 Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, visited the site of the attack with his far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir. “The war continues, in Jerusalem as well,” Netanyahu said.
The attack took place at the Ramot intersection at the northern entrance to Jerusalem in an area occupied by Israel in 1967 and later annexed – a move the UN and most countries do not recognise.
Images shared on social media appeared to show a Carlo submachine gun discarded at the scene.
These weapons can be crudely manufactured in small metal shops, and models produced by gunsmiths in the West Bank have been used in attacks by Palestinians on Israelis.
While there have been scattered attacks in Israel over recent months, the last deadly mass shooting was in October 2024, when two Palestinians from the West Bank opened fire on a major boulevard and light rail station in the Tel Aviv area, killing seven people and leaving many others wounded. Hamas’s military wing claimed responsibility for that attack.
France strongly condemned the attack on Monday in a post on social media. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, offered his condolences to the victims and the Israeli people.
“The spiral of violence must come to an end. Only a political solution will bring back peace and stability for all in the region,” he said on X.
