Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a group of Israeli civilians at a Jerusalem bus stop on Monday, killing at least six people and injuring another 12 in what was Israel’s deadliest mass shooting in less than a year.
The two attackers targeted a group of people waiting at a bus stop. Israeli media outlets reported that the suspects also opened fire inside a crowded bus. The gunmen were killed by an Israeli security officer and a civilian shortly thereafter. Israeli police described the shooting as a “terrorist attack.”
The perpetrators carried out the attack on a road that leads to east Jerusalem.
Hamas praised the attack but stopped short of claiming responsibility.
“We affirm that this operation is a natural response to the crimes of the occupation and the genocide it is waging against our people,” the Palestinian terrorist group said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later visited the scene of the shooting instead of attending his corruption trial. The court hearing was canceled.
“We are fighting a war against terrorism on multiple fronts,” Netanyahu said amid the Israel-Hamas war. “I want to share my condolences with the families of the victims and with those injured. We are chasing and surrounding the villages where the terrorists came from.”
This was the deadliest attack in Israel since October 2024, when two Palestinians from the West Bank fatally shot seven people and left more wounded on a light rail train in Tel Aviv. Hamas claimed responsibility for that shooting, which occurred almost a year after the group’s coordinated attack against southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
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Israeli President Isaac Herzog denounced the attackers, describing them as “vile and evil terrorists.”
“In the face of this barbarity, we saw extraordinary acts of heroism which prevented even further loss of innocent lives,” he wrote on X, referring to the two men who returned fire on the Palestinian gunmen. “This shocking attack reminds us once again that we are fighting absolute evil. The world must understand what we are up against, and that terror will never defeat us.”