Gunman opens fire on bus in Jerusalem in ‘terror attack’ that seriously injured two people and injured another five
- Worshipers abandon Sabbath prayers at Western Wall target of ‘terror attack’
- The gunman opened fire on a full bus and injured seven. Driver: ‘Everyone in a panic’
- Israeli PM said security forces ‘will restore calm’, while Hamas praised the attack
- A spokesman for the emergency services said six men and a woman were injured in the violence
A gunman fired at a busload of Jewish worshipers on their way home from Jerusalem’s Western Wall at the end of the Sabbath this morning, injuring seven and seriously injuring two.
The suspect fled the scene but has since turned himself in, the Israeli police confirmed.
Bus driver Daniel Kanievsky said the unidentified assailant opened fire on the packed vehicle as he stopped at David’s tomb near the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site.
He told reporters outside the bullet-riddled bus, “I stopped at David’s Tomb station. That’s when the shooting started.
The bus attack took place near King David’s tomb in Jerusalem’s Old City
An Israeli security official stands behind a shattered window as he surveys the site of the attack
“Outside I see two people fall, two inside are bleeding. Everyone panicked.’
Israeli police in the capital’s old city said the gunman, from East Jerusalem, handed himself over to police.
The Hamas terror group praised the attack as “a natural response to Israel’s occupation” of Gaza, but did not claim responsibility for the violence.
“Jerusalem is our capital and a tourist center for all religions,” Prime Minister Yair Lapid said in a statement, adding that Israeli security forces “would restore calm.”
Israel’s emergency medical services, the Magen David Adom (MDA), called the incident a “terror attack in the old city.”
Investigators gather evidence near the bus shortly after the shooting, which left seven injured
A worshiper puts his finger on a bullet hole in the bus window in the early hours today
MDA spokesman Zaki Heller said six men and one woman were injured in the attack, all seven “fully conscious.”
Paramedics said they were providing life-saving treatment to people with gunshot wounds, both on the bus and in the parking lot of King David’s Tomb.
All victims were taken to nearby hospitals.
“We were on the scene very quickly,” senior EMT Nehemiah Katz and paramedic David Trachtenberg said in a statement.
“On Ma’ale Hashalom St. we saw a passenger bus in the middle of the road. Bystanders called us to treat two men in their 30s who were on the bus with gunshot wounds.”
Ultra-Orthodox Jews look at the street in East Jerusalem’s Old City where the bus was hit
Paramedics on motorcycles respond to shooting that injured several Israeli worshipers
Members of the city’s ZAKA Search and Rescue team are pictured cleaning blood from the streets
Worshipers have been praying late into the night at the Western Wall this past weekend
It comes a week after a three-day conflict between Israel and Islamic Jihad militants in Gaza killed at least 49 Palestinians, including a five-year-old girl.
Israeli fighter jets slammed into the narrow coastal strip in what the military said was a preemptive strike aimed at preventing an imminent threat to Israel.
Since March, 19 people – mostly Israeli civilians in Israel – have been killed in attacks, mostly by Palestinians. Three Israeli Arab attackers were also killed.
In the aftermath, Israeli authorities stepped up attacks on the occupied West Bank, killing more than 50 militants and civilians.