A terrorist attack on Monday morning against a bus in Jerusalem has so far left more than five dead and at least 11 injured, according to local authorities.
Two Palestinian terrorists from the Ramallah region of West Bank opened fire on the crowded bus at the intersection of a bustling avenue at the entrance of the city, before being slaughtered by a soldier and an armed civilian. Witnesses reported scenes of panic as the shots began.
“I was on the bus. The bus was full. By the time the driver opened the door the terrorists came. It was terrible,” a surviving passenger told the station Channel 12. “There was shooting beyond anything imaginable. I can’t believe I’m standing here. Indescribable shooting,” he added.
The Magn David Adom (MDA) emergency service reported that six of the injured are in serious condition, two moderately injured and three with minor injuries. Shortly after the attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called an urgent meeting with security officials. The government ordered reinforcement of policing in Jerusalem and adjacent areas, with the installation of barriers and extra patrols.
The terrorist group Hamas, although not assumed the authorship, celebrated the attack, classifying it as a “heroic operation.” In a statement, the organization stated that the attack was a “natural response to the crimes of occupation and the extermination war against our people,” encouraging the Somber Palestinians to intensify the confrontation against Israel and the Jewish settlers.
Israel’s Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, even said shortly after the attack that “today a powerful hurricane will hit the skies of the city of Gaza,” signaling a possible military response against terrorist action in the ongoing operation in Gaza.
Within Israel, the political reaction to the attack was immediate. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich defended the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority, which controls the West Bank, claiming that “the State of Israel cannot accept a Palestinian authority that educates its children to assassinate Jews.”
He added that “the Palestinian authority must disappear from the map, and the villages from which the terrorists came from should look like Rafah and Beit Hanoun,” in reference to Gaza’s locations destroyed during the offensive against Hamas. Smotrich also praised the “act of courage” of the soldier and the armed civilian, who was a student, facing and neutralizing the terrorists who attacked the bus, “probably avoiding an even greater attack.”
The identity of the terrorists is still being investigated by security services, but sources confirm that they have left villages near Ramallah.
