Israeli forces vowed revenge after Palestinian gunmen killed six and injured 11 on a bus in Jerusalem. Photo / Getty Images
Israeli forces vowed revenge after Palestinian gunmen killed six and injured 11 on a bus in Jerusalem. Photo / Getty Images
Israel has vowed revenge after Palestinian gunmen stormed a bus in Jerusalem, killing six people and injuring 11, including a pregnant woman.
The two gunmen sprayed passengers with bullets during the morning rush hour on Monday in an attack Israel Katz, the country’s Defence Minister, said will have “far-reaching consequences”.
Israeli police described the shooting as a terrorist attack and said the perpetrators – identified by Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar as Palestinians from the occupied West Bank – were killed at the scene by a soldier and several armed civilians.
As Israeli forces encircled several areas on the outskirts of Ramallah, the de facto capital of the West Bank, Katz warned: “This heinous attack will have extremely serious and far-reaching consequences. We will pursue terrorism everywhere.”
Four victims were declared dead at the scene, including a 50-year-old man and three men in their 30s, while two others, including a woman in her 50s, died in hospital.
Six of the wounded are in serious condition in hospital with gunshot wounds.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, speaking from the scene of the attack, pledged to find everyone involved and declared a crackdown on the villages where the assailants came from.
He told reporters: “We are in an intense war against terror on several fronts. I want to send condolences to the families of the dead and to the wounded.”
The attack comes at a difficult moment for ceasefire negotiations as Israel expands its war in Gaza, and Donald Trump on Sunday issued his “last warning” to Hamas to accept a deal and release the hostages.
Just before the shooting, Katz said Israel would ramp up its air strikes on Gaza City in a “mighty hurricane” as a “final warning” to Hamas to lay down its arms.
Hamas praised the attack in a statement, calling it a “natural response to the crimes of occupation and the genocide it is waging against our people”.
The Palestinian terror group did not take responsibility, but called on West Bank Palestinians to “escalate the confrontation with the occupation and its settlers”.
Israeli police said the two attackers arrived by car and opened fire at a bus stop at Ramot Junction, a major intersection at the northern entrance to Jerusalem that leads to Jewish settlements in the east.
Footage shows dozens of people fleeing the scene after the outbreak of the attack, dodging traffic on a busy road with some even leaving their cars to run to safety.
A taxi driver who stopped next to the bus was seen helping an elderly passenger out of his car and escorting her away as the attack happened.
In video of the aftermath, the windscreen of the bus was riddled with bullet holes. Passengers’ belongings and unconscious people were scattered across the street.
Two young men, thought to have been the attackers, were also seen lying dead on a pavement.
Police said several weapons, ammunition and a knife were used by the attackers.
The gunmen used a makeshift “Carlo” submachine gun, a homemade weapon, built in small workshops and often used by Hamas or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The gunmen used a makeshift "Carlo" submachine gun.
A woman who was on the bus when the suspects opened fire recounted trying to escape from “indescribable gunfire”.
“I was on the bus. The bus was packed,” the woman, who did not give her name, told Israel’s Channel 12.
“The moment [the driver] opened the door … terrorists came. It was terrible. I was by the back door, I fell on everyone and escaped, I saved myself.
“There was gunfire there beyond anything imaginable. I can’t believe I’m standing here. Indescribable gunfire.”
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