Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a bus stop in east Jerusalem on Monday, killing six people and wounding others, according to Israel’s foreign minister, in one of the deadliest attacks on Israel since the start of the Gaza war.
“Palestinian terrorists murdered six Israelis,” Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said, adding that one of the dead was a recent immigrant from Spain.
Israeli emergency service Magen David Adom (MDA) had earlier reported 15 people wounded in the late morning attack at the Ramot Junction in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, with seven in serious condition. Police said the two gunmen were also killed.
Four of the dead were ultra-Orthodox Israeli men, according to local media.
At the scene of the attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “Let it be clear: these murders strengthen our determination to fight terrorism.”
“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.”
Israeli army chief Eyal Zamir later said in a statement that he “ordered a full closure of the area from which the terrorists came”.
“We will continue with a determined and ongoing operational and intelligence effort, we will pursue terror cells everywhere, and we will thwart terrorist infrastructure and its organizers,” he added.
The Israeli military had earlier said troops were “encircling several areas on the outskirts of Ramallah” in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in response to the attack.
Hamas said it was carried out by two Palestinians. “We affirm that this operation is a natural response to the crimes of the occupation and the genocide it is waging against our people,” Hamas said in a statement.
Israeli soldiers
Palestinian killed four Israeli soldiers on Monday after lobbing an explosive device into their tank, the Israeli military said.
“Around 6:00 in the morning (0300 GMT), a squad of three terrorists arrived at the IDF (Israeli military) post near Sheikh Radwan in northern Gaza,” it said in a statement.
“The terrorists threw an explosive device into an IDF tank -- the device detonated, killing the four IDF soldiers who were in the tank at the time.”
Another soldier was moderately injured in the exchange of fire that ensued, the military said, adding that “hits were identified” on two of the three militants who carried out the assault.
Only three of the dead soldiers were named, while the name of the fourth has not yet been cleared for publication.
According to an AFP toll based on data from the Israeli military, 468 soldiers have been killed since the start of the military’s ground offensive in Gaza on October 27, 2023.
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