Six Israelis killed in East Jerusalem attack
Six Israelis have been killed and eight others wounded by Palestinian gunmen in one of the deadliest shooting attacks in East Jerusalem in the past few years.
Israeli police said two terrorists arrived in a vehicle and opened fire towards a bus stop at Ramot Junction, on the city’s northern outskirts. An off-duty soldier and a civilian returned fire, neutralising the attackers, it added.
The Israeli military said soldiers were encircling Palestinian villages on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Ramallah to thwart terrorism and strengthen the defence effort.
Israeli police spokesman Lt Dean Elsdunne said: The terrorists arrived by vehicle… and deliberately opened fire on a number of civilians who were waiting at that busy bus stop to start their day.
A number of armed civilians who were at the scene acted immediately. They engaged by returning fire and they killed those two terrorists on the spot.
He added that officers had recovered several weapons, ammunition and a knife used by the attackers, who Israeli media said were believed to have set out from the West Bank villages of al-Qubeiba and Qatanna, about 10km (6 miles) west of Ramot Junction.
Israeli media identified the dead as five men, aged between 25 and 79, and a 60-year-old woman. Local hospitals said two of the wounded were in a serious condition.
During a visit to the scene, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters that Israel was in an intense war against terrorism on several fronts.
Israeli security forces had thwarted hundreds of attacks in the occupied West Bank this year, but, unfortunately, not this morning, he said.
We are now engaged in pursuit and are cordoning off the villages from which the murderers came. We will apprehend whoever aided and dispatched them, and we will take even stronger steps, he added.
