According to Israeli authorities, six people have been killed and 12 others injured in a shooting attack in occupied East Jerusalem.
The attack took place at the Ramot junction. Police disclosed that two gunmen targeted people waiting for a bus during the morning rush hour before being shot dead by an off-duty soldier and a civilian who were at the scene.
The ambulance service identified five of the victims as a 50-year-old man, a woman in her 50s and three men in their 30s, adding that 12 other people had suffered injuries, including six who were in a serious condition with gunshot wounds.
The Israeli Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa’ar, later said that a sixth person had died and that the gunmen were Palestinians from the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Speaking while on a visit to Hungary, he described a “terrible terror attack.”
“We are in a war with radical Islamist terrorism. Europe and the international community, every country, must now make a clear choice. Are they on Israel’s side, or are they on the side of the jihadists?”
Gideon Sa’ar
Hundreds of members of the security forces were deployed at the scene to search for additional attackers or explosives that could have been planted around the area.
The Israeli military said that it was encircling Palestinian villages on the outskirts of the nearby West Bank city of Ramallah in response to the attack.
It said it had reinforced its forces in the wider Jerusalem area and was conducting a wide-ranging search for what it described as “accomplices” of the perpetrators of the shooting.
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s far-right Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the scene of the shooting. Netanyahu said at the scene of the attack,“We are in an intense war against terror on several fronts.”
“I want to send condolences to the families of the dead and to the wounded. A pursuit and encirclement of the villages from which the terrorists came is underway.”
Benjamin Netanyahu
Meanwhile, Hamas praised two Palestinian “resistance fighters” who it said had carried out the attack but stopped short of claiming responsibility. Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian militant group, also praised the shooting without claiming responsibility.
The war in Gaza has sparked a surge of violence in both the occupied West Bank and Israel. Palestinian militants have attacked and killed Israelis in Israel and the West Bank, while there has also been a steep rise in settler violence against Palestinians.
Data from the UN’s humanitarian office says at least 49 Israelis have been killed by Palestinians in Israel or the West Bank between the start of the war and July 2025. In that time, Israeli forces and civilians killed at least 968 Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank.
While there have been scattered attacks in Israel over recent months, the last deadly mass shooting was in October 2024, when two Palestinians from the West Bank opened fire on a major boulevard and light rail station in the Tel Aviv area, killing seven people and leaving many others wounded. Hamas’s military wing claimed responsibility for that attack.
Jerusalem Shooting Attack Condemned
France strongly condemned the attack in a post on social media. The French President, Emmanuel Macron, offered his condolences to the victims and the Israeli people.
“The spiral of violence must come to an end. Only a political solution will bring back peace and stability for all in the region.”
Emmanuel Macron
Also, Germany’s Foreign Minister, Johann Wadephul, said that he was “deeply shocked” by the attack in East Jerusalem, describing it as a “cowardly terror attack.” “I wish those who were injured a speedy recovery,” Wadephul wrote on X.
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