Israel: Attack near Jerusalem kills six people

Two Palestinian gunmen fired at a bus stop near Jerusalem on September 8th, killing six in what police called “a terrorist attack,” one of the city’s deadliest in recent years, according to Asharq Al-Aswat via Associated Press and Reuters.

Israeli police reported that two attackers arrived by car and opened fire at a bus stop at Ramot junction. Meanwhile, the police said that several weapons, ammunition, and a knife used in the attack were recovered at the scene. 

Bus dashboard camera footage from the scene showed people fleeing a bus stopped by the roadside as gunfire erupted. Another video captured the bus’s windscreen and windows riddled with bullet holes.

Ester Lugasi, who was injured in the attack, told Israeli TV from a hospital, “Suddenly I heard the shots starting … I felt like I was running for an eternity,” she added, “I thought I was going to die.” 

The ambulance service identified five victims: a 50-year-old man, a woman in her fifties, and three men in their thirties. A total of 11 others were injured, six of them seriously, with gunshot wounds.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar later confirmed a sixth death, stating the gunmen were Palestinians from the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The attack comes as Israel’s government is planning to expand settlements and advance the planned annexation of the West Bank, which was agreed upon by the Israeli parliament in a non-binding resolution back in July. The UN has condemned plans for the annexation of the occupied territory by Israel. Israel has already occupied Eastern Jerusalem and the Golan Heights since 1967. 

There is also an uptick in settler violence against Palestinians, with the displacement of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank reaching record levels not seen since Israel occupied the territory in 1967, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in the region (UNRWA). 

The Palestinian group Hamas applauded two Palestinian “resistance fighters” who carried out the attack, but the group did not formally claim responsibility, while Islamic Jihad also praised the attack.

At the scene of the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Israeli forces were pursuing suspects who had assisted the gunmen.

Footage from Reuters showed a strong police presence in Ramot following the shooting. Ambulance services reported that on arrival, paramedics found several victims on the road and sidewalk, some unconscious.

The Israeli military stated it had deployed soldiers to assist police in searching for suspects. It was also operating in parts of Ramallah in the West Bank to carry out interrogations and “thwart terrorism.”

In October last year, two Palestinians, one armed with a gun and another with a knife, killed seven people in Tel Aviv. In November 2023, two Palestinian gunmen killed three at a Jerusalem bus stop. Israeli security services said the 2023 Jerusalem shooting perpetrators were connected with Hamas.

Asharq Al-Aswat via Associated Press and Reuters, Maghrebi.org