On Monday, a deadly assault occurred on the outskirts of Jerusalem, where two gunmen targeted a bus stop, resulting in six fatalities. This incident, described by the police as a terrorist attack, is one of the most lethal in the city in recent years. Eyewitness accounts and video footage from the scene depict a bus halted by the roadside as gunshots echoed, causing people to flee in panic. The bus’s windscreen and windows were riddled with bullet holes.
Ester Lugasi, a survivor of the attack, recounted her terrifying experience to Israeli TV from her hospital bed. She described hearing the initial gunshots and the fear she felt as she ran for her life, believing she would not survive.
The victims of the attack were identified by the ambulance service as a man in his fifties, a woman also in her fifties, and three men in their thirties. In addition to the fatalities, 11 individuals were injured, with six in serious condition due to gunshot wounds.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar later confirmed a sixth fatality and identified the gunmen as Palestinians from the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The Palestinian militant group Hamas lauded the two “resistance fighters” who executed the attack, although they did not claim responsibility. Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian militant group, also commended the shooting.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking from the scene, stated that Israeli forces were in pursuit of those who assisted the attackers. The police reported that the two assailants arrived by car and targeted the bus stop at Ramot Junction. Several weapons, ammunition, and a knife used by the attackers were found at the scene.
Following the attack, a heavy police presence was observed in the Ramot area. Paramedics arriving at the scene reported multiple victims lying on the road and sidewalk, some unconscious. The Israeli military deployed soldiers to assist the police in their search for suspects and to conduct interrogations in areas of Ramallah in the West Bank to “thwart terrorism.”
This incident follows a series of similar attacks in recent years. In October 2024, two Palestinians, one armed with a gun and the other with a knife, killed seven people in Tel Aviv. In November 2023, two Palestinian gunmen killed three people at a Jerusalem bus stop. Israeli security services linked the attackers in the 2023 Jerusalem shooting to Hamas.