Palestinian gunmen kill 6 people in attack on Jerusalem bus stop

JERUSALEM — Palestinian attackers opened fire at a bus stop during the morning rush hour in Jerusalem on Monday, killing six people and wounding another 12, according to Israeli officials.

An Israeli soldier and civilians who were at the scene shot and killed the two attackers, said police, who later arrested a third person in connection with the shooting. Footage of the attack showed dozens of people fleeing from the bus stop at a busy intersection. The windshield of a bus was riddled with bullet holes and belongings were scattered across the street.

The war in Gaza has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and sparked a surge of violence in Israel and the occupied West Bank, with a rise in attacks by Palestinian militants as well as Israeli settler violence against Palestinians.

Monday’s shooting — at a major intersection, with a road leading to Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem — was the deadliest in Israel since October 2024.

Later on Monday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said two 14-year-old Palestinians had been shot and killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Jenin, where Israel has carried out several major military operations in recent years.

The military said troops fired at individuals who had entered an area under a closure order. It said they posed a threat to its forces, without specifying the nature of the threat or providing evidence, and that they had ignored instructions to leave.

Paramedics who responded to the scene said broken glass covered the area, and people wounded lay unconscious on the road and a sidewalk near the bus stop. Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency said the two attackers were 20- and 21-year-old Palestinians from the West Bank with no prior arrests.

Hamas hailed the attack without claiming responsibility, calling it a “natural response to the occupation’s crimes against our people.”

President Mahmoud Abbas, head of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, condemned “any targeting of Palestinian and Israeli civilians,” and “denounced all forms of violence and terrorism, regardless of their source,” according to a statement from his office.

The Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank and cooperates with Israel on security matters, has been largely sidelined since the start of the war.