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Two Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a bus stop on the outskirts of Jerusalem, killing six people in what police described as “a terrorist attack”, one of the deadliest in the city in the past few years.
Footage from a dashboard camera at the scene in Ramot Junction showed people fleeing from around a bus at the side of a road as shots rang out. Israel Police said the attackers were shot dead at the scene by a soldier and an armed civilian.
“Suddenly I hear the shots starting … I felt like I was running for an eternity,” Ester Lugasi, who was injured in the attack, told Israeli TV from hospital. “I thought I was going to die.”
The ambulance service identified the five of the victims as a 50-year-old man, a woman in her fifties and three men in their thirties. It said six others were in serious condition with gunshot wounds. Police said more than 20 people were injured.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said later a sixth person had died and that the gunmen were Palestinians from the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Police said the attackers had opened fire towards a bus stop after arriving in a vehicle. Source: AAP / AP / Mahmoud Illean
In a later statement by the Israeli military on Monday, the chief of the general staff, Eyal Zamir was quoted as saying that he had ordered a full closure of the area from which the gunmen came.
Spain’s foreign ministry said a Spanish citizen was among those killed and condemned the attack. France, the EU and the United Arab Emirates also issued statements of condemnation.
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.
“A painful and difficult morning. Innocent civilians, women, men, and children were brutally murdered and wounded in cold blood on a bus in Jerusalem by vile and evil terrorists,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said while commenting on the attack.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued a statement which condemned “any targeting of Palestinian and Israeli civilians”.
However, Hamas commended two Palestinian “resistance fighters” for allegedly executing the attack, and Islamic Jihad, another militant group from Palestine, also expressed approval of the shooting. Yet, neither organization took responsibility for the incident.
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.
