The shooting took place against the backdrop of nearly two years of war in Gaza, where Israel’s campaign against militant group Hamas has left the territory in devastation. In the West Bank, Palestinians have faced tightened military restrictions and a surge in attacks by Jewish settlers.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued a statement which condemned “any targeting of Palestinian and Israeli civilians”.
Rescue and recovery workers carry the body of a victim at the scene.Credit: AP
But Hamas praised two Palestinian “resistance fighters” who it said had carried out the attack and Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian militant group, also praised the shooting. Neither group claimed responsibility.
Speaking at the scene of the attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces were pursuing suspects who aided them.
Israeli police said the two attackers had arrived by car and opened fire at a bus stop at Ramot Junction, an area straddling a part of Jerusalem that Israel captured in the 1967 war and later annexed in a move unrecognised by the United Nations and most countries.
Several guns, ammunition and a knife used by the attackers were recovered at the scene and a suspect from East Jerusalem whose alleged involvement in the shooting was being investigated had been arrested, police said.
Reuters footage showed a heavy police presence in the Ramot area following the shooting. The ambulance service said a paramedic arriving at the scene reported that several victims were lying on the road and the sidewalk, some unconscious.
The Israeli military said it had deployed soldiers to the area who were aiding police in the search for suspects. Soldiers were also operating in areas of Ramallah in the West Bank to conduct interrogations and “thwart terrorism”, it said.
More than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza since the war began in October 2023, say Gazan health officials. The war was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on Israel which killed around 1200 people, while another 251 were taken captive into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
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There have been several shootings and stabbings targeting Israeli civilians and soldiers in Israel and the West Bank carried out by Palestinians since the Gaza war started.
In October 2024, two Palestinians, one armed with a gun and the other with a knife, killed 7 people in Tel Aviv. In November 2023, two Palestinian gunmen killed 3 people at a Jerusalem bus stop. Israeli security services said that the attackers in the Jerusalem shooting were linked to Hamas.
A Palestinian gunman killed 7 people in a Jerusalem synagogue in January 2023.
‘I fell on everyone and escaped’: Shooting attack on Jerusalem bus kills at least six
