Two gunmen from annexed East Jerusalem opened fire on people near a bus stop in the western part of the city, where there are no checkpoints at the entrance to the city, the report said.
“Two terrorists arrived in a car, one armed with an M-16 assault rifle and the other with a pistol,” Jerusalem Police Chief Doron Torgeman told reporters at the scene.
The attackers opened fire but were soon neutralized by gunfire at the scene by two off-duty Israeli soldiers and another civilian, police said in a statement.
It said police searched the attackers’ car and found ammunition and weapons, and that three people were injured in a serious condition.
A video posted on social media and on Israeli television shows two men getting out of a white car and opening fire on people waiting for a bus. Soldiers and bystanders are also seen intervening and returning fire.
The AFP news agency has not yet been able to verify the authenticity of the post.
Rescue service Magen David Adom said one of the victims is a 24-year-old woman.
Hamas claimed responsibility for the shooting attack in Jerusalem on Thursday and called for “intensification of resistance”.
“This operation is a natural response to the unprecedented crimes committed by the occupier in the Gaza Strip and against children in Janine” in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Islamist movement said in a statement.
The attack came shortly after a last-minute ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, which halts fighting in the Gaza Strip, was extended for a seventh day.
The war began when Hamas militants invaded Israel through the border of the Gaza Strip on October 7 and, according to Israeli officials, killed about 1,200 people. people. About 240 more Israelis were taken hostage.
In response, Israel vowed to crush Hamas and launched a massive military operation in the Gaza Strip, which the Palestinian Authority’s ruling Hamas government says has already killed nearly 15,000 people. people.
After the war, bloody violence also increased in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.
On October 6, an Israeli border police officer died after being stabbed by a Palestinian attacker outside a police station in East Jerusalem.
10 days later, an Israeli soldier was shot and killed in an attack at a checkpoint in eastern Jerusalem near the entrance to the tunnel connecting the Israeli-occupied West Bank with Jerusalem.
Five members of the Jewish state’s security forces were also injured in the attack, and all three attackers were killed by Israeli police.
Hamas’ armed military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack.
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2024-08-26 00:44:11
