A fatal attack unfolded on the outskirts of Jerusalem on Monday, as two armed individuals targeted a bus stop, leading to the death of six people. The police have classified the incident as a terrorist attack, marking it as one of the most deadly in the city’s recent history. Witnesses and video evidence from the scene show a bus stopped by the roadside, with the sound of gunfire causing people to scatter in fear. The bus was left with its windscreen and windows peppered with bullet holes.
Ester Lugasi, a survivor of the attack, shared her harrowing experience with Israeli TV from her hospital bed. She recounted the terror she felt upon hearing the initial gunshots and the dread that filled her as she ran, fearing she wouldn’t make it out alive.
The victims of the attack were identified by the ambulance service as a man and a woman, both in their fifties, and three men in their thirties. Beyond the fatalities, 11 people were injured, six of whom are in serious condition due to gunshot wounds.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar confirmed a sixth fatality and identified the attackers as Palestinians from the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The Palestinian militant group Hamas praised the two individuals who carried out the attack as “resistance fighters,” although they did not officially claim responsibility. Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian militant group, also applauded the shooting.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking from the scene, announced that Israeli forces were in pursuit of those who aided 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 discovered at the scene.
In the aftermath of the attack, a significant police presence was noted in the Ramot area. Paramedics arriving at the scene reported multiple victims 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 is the latest in 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.