Gunman opens fire on bus in Jerusalem in ‘terror attack’ that has left two people critically injured and another five wounded
- Worshippers leaving Sabbath prayers at Western Wall targeted in ‘terror attack’
- Shooter opened fire on full bus, wounding seven. Driver: ‘Everybody panicked’
- Israel’s PM said security forces will ‘restore calm’ while Hamas praised attack
- Emergency services spokesperson said six men and one woman hurt in violence
A gunman shot at a bus full of Jewish worshippers on their way home from Jerusalem’s Western Wall at the end of Sabbath this morning, wounding seven and critically injuring two.
The suspect fled the scene but has since turned himself in, Israeli police confirmed.
Bus driver Daniel Kanievsky said the unidentified assailant opened fire on the packed vehicle as he stopped by David’s Tomb near the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site.
He told journalists outside the bullet-riddled bus: ‘I stopped at the station of the Tomb of David. At this moment, the shooting started.
The attack against the bus occurred near King David’s Tomb in Jerusalem’s Old City
An Israeli security official stands behind a shattered window as he probes the attack scene
‘Two people outside I see falling, two inside were bleeding. Everybody panicked.’
Israeli police in the capital’s Old City said the shooter, from East Jerusalem, handed himself over to cops.
Terror group Hamas praised the attack as ‘a natural response to the occupation’ of Gaza by Israel, but did not claim responsibility for the violence.
‘Jerusalem is our capital city 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’.
MDA spokesperson Zaki Heller said six men and one woman were injured in the attack, with all seven ‘fully conscious’.
Paramedics said they provided lifesaving treatment to people with gunshot wounds, including both on the bus and in the King David’s Tomb parking area.
All victims were taken to nearby hospitals.
‘We were on scene very quickly,’ senior EMT Nehemia Katz and paramedic David Trachtenberg said in a statement.
‘On Ma’ale Hashalom St. we saw a passenger bus standing in the middle of the road, bystanders called us to treat two males around 30 years old who were on the bus with gunshot wounds.’
Ultra Orthodox Jews look on at the street in East Jerusalem’s Old City, where the bus was hit
Paramedics on motorbikes respond to the shooting that saw several Israeli worshippers hurt
Members of the city’s ZAKA Search and Rescue team are pictured cleaning blood off street
Worshippers are pictured praying at the Western Wall late into the night last weekend
It comes a week after a three-day conflict between Israel and Islamic Jihad militants in Gaza saw at least 49 Palestinians killed, including a five-year-old girl.
Israeli jets pounded the narrow coastal strip in what the military said was a pre-emptive attack aimed at preventing an imminent threat to Israel.
Since March, 19 people – mostly Israeli civilians inside Israel – have been killed in attacks, mostly by Palestinians. Three Israeli Arab attackers were also killed.
In the aftermath, Israeli authorities increased raids in the occupied West Bank, killing more than 50 militants and civilians.
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