At least seven people are in serious condition. Hamas and Islamic Jihad deny involvement in an attack that has not yet been claimed. The movement that controls Gaza commends the attackers, while the Palestinian Authority condemns them. Ben Gvir calls for the death penalty “for terrorists”. Speaking to AsiaNews, Rabbi Milgrom lamented this “terrible attack,” saying that “ we must remain united” with the aim of "achieving peace”.

 

Jerusalem (AsiaNews) – The provisional toll from this morning's attack in Ramot, East Jerusalem, is six dead and 11 wounded, at least seven in serious condition.

At 10:00 am (local time), two men armed with machine guns opened fire at a bus stop. The attackers, coming from West Bank villages now the scene of a special operation by the Israeli military and security forces, were "neutralised" thanks (in part) to the intervention of an IDF soldier from the new Hasmonean Brigade, composed of Haredi Jews, formerly exempt from military service.

Contacted by AsiaNews, Jeremy Milgrom, an Israeli pacifist rabbi and member of the NGO Rabbis for Human Rights, described the event as a "terrible attack" in response to which "we must remain united" and engage even more in "negotiations" with the aim of "achieving peace."

The six confirmed victims are: Levi Yitzhak Pash, Yisrael Matzner, 28; Rabbi Yosef David, 43; Rabbi Mordechai Steintzag, 79; Yaakov Pinto, 25; and Sarah Mendelson, 60, the only woman among those killed in an attack that no group has yet claimed responsibility.

In the immediate aftermath, Hamas issued a statement. While denying active participation, it “commended” the attackers' action, calling it a "natural response" to Israel's military activity in Gaza. Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian militant group, also praised the shooting but did not claim responsibility.

Statements from leaders of the Palestinian Authority, which rules parts of the West Bank not under full Israeli control, were of a different nature, condemning “any targeting Palestinian and Israeli citizens.”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned "all forms of violence and terrorism, regardless of their source," adding that recognition of the Palestinian state is the only way to end the "cycle of violence" in the region.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog described it as a "painful and difficult morning."

Along with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu immediately rushed to the scene of the attack, after the court session in his corruption trial was suspended.

Speaking to reporters at Ramot Junction, the prime minister emphasised Israel's "mighty war on terror," which "is taking place on all fronts.” Extending his condolences to the families of the victims, the prime minister announced a manhunt in "the villages where the terrorists came from.”

The two men are believed to be Palestinians from the West Bank towns of Qubeiba and Qatanna, on the outskirts of Ramallah.

Netanyahu also emphasised that "the fighting continues in the Gaza Strip," where Israel "will destroy Hamas as we promised and will free our hostages, all our hostages."

"Unfortunately," he added, using the biblical names for the West Bank, "the war continues in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria, where we have acted with great force.”

The attack prompted immediate reactions from two leaders of the far right religious and pro-settlement parties in the Israeli government.

Following this morning's shooting, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority (PA), adding that “the State of Israel cannot accept a Palestinian Authority that raises and educates its children to murder Jews.”

The PA, he added, must “disappear from the map, and the villages from which the terrorists came should look like Rafah and Beit Hanoun.”

Minister Ben Gvir's Otzma Yehudit party intends to raise the issue of the death penalty for terrorists next week in the National Security Committee of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.

In March 2023, lawmakers voted 55-9 to support a bill put forward by the far-right party to impose the death penalty on terrorists who kill Israelis.

For its part, the Israeli military has deployed soldiers to the area and is supporting police forces searching for suspects or others involved in the attack.

The military also launched operations in the Ramallah area of ​​the West Bank with actions “to thwart terrorism.”

Today's is the third bloody incident involving Palestinian attackers targeting civilians in Israel since the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023, which triggered the war in Gaza.

In October 2024, two Palestinians, one armed with a gun and the other with a knife, killed seven people in Tel Aviv. In November 2023, two Palestinian gunmen killed three people at a Jerusalem bus stop.

Israeli security services said the attackers in the 2023 Jerusalem shooting were linked to Hamas.

• israel
• palestine
• west bank
• gaza
• ramot
• hamas
• attack
• benyamin netanyahu
• bezalel smotrich
• itamar ben gvir
• mahmoud abbas