Two Palestinian attackers drove up to a busy bus stop at a crossroads outside Jerusalem on Monday and opened fire on unsuspecting civilians, killing at least six people and wounding more than two dozen in an attack Israeli officials called a terrorist attack.
The attack, celebrated by Palestinian terrorist groups but not immediately claimed, unfolded with such speed and brutality that it plunged the morning into chaos. According to witnesses and government officials, the gunmen specifically targeted people waiting for transportation at the Ramot intersection, an area near Israeli settlements in occupied East Jerusalem.
“The bus was packed with passengers. The driver kept us locked in for ten minutes, wouldn’t open the doors and didn’t give us any explanation,” Marca Cohen, a 72-year-old resident of the nearby settlement of Ramot who was inside a parked vehicle when the shooting started, told EFE. The doors finally opened and that’s when she heard the gunshots, managing to escape through one of the vehicle’s rear exits.
The head of staff of the Israeli emergency service Magen David Adom, Uri Shaham, explained that the Palestinians fired from the street, hitting both people at the bus stop and passengers on the bus. Images of the incident, shared on social media, showed citizens dressed in the area's characteristic ultra-Orthodox attire running between stopped cars in a desperate attempt to reach safety. The EFE news agency witnessed at the scene that at least one of the fatalities was dressed in that manner.
Eliazar Toledano, another eyewitness, described the moments of panic and confusion. “The station was, of course, full of the hustle and bustle of people. Suddenly, I started to hear a burst of gunfire, small at first, and then it intensified,” he told Reuters. “People were looking at each other, trying to understand what was happening, but no one understood. Only maybe two or three seconds later, someone suddenly shouted ‘terrorist attack!’ and people started running.”
Toledano added that during the escape, he saw"people falling or hurting themselves," including a woman who had fainted and another who was bleeding. It was only later, upon returning to the scene, that he realized the magnitude of the tragedy when he saw"two tragic bodies."
The response at the scene was swift. The two attackers, identified by the Israeli Foreign Ministry as Palestinian citizens, were shot dead at the scene by a soldier and two armed civilians before emergency crews arrived, police confirmed.
Ohevya Sharabi, a Magen David Adom medic who was nearby, was one of the first responders. “I arrived quickly, I was the first one there, and I provided lifesaving medical treatment to the injured. Unfortunately, there are several deceased,” he said. Sharabi described the scene as “very, very difficult,” with “people lying on the ground, people bleeding, people panicking, running in all directions.”
The victims
The final death toll was at least six. Among the identified victims were Yaakov Pinto, a 25-year-old newlywed Spanish citizen who had immigrated to Israel; Rabbi Levi Yitzhak Pash, a yeshiva teacher; Israel Mentzer, 28, and Yosef David, 43, both residents of the Ramot neighborhood. Two of the wounded were later pronounced dead at the hospital: Sarah Mendelson, 60, an Argentine-born member of the Bnei Akiva movement, and Rabbi Mordechai Steinsteg, a 79-year-old cardiologist and baker.
Paramedics transported 13 people with physical injuries to hospitals, including six in serious condition from gunshot wounds. They also treated 10 other people for anxiety attacks at the scene, a number that later rose to 26, according to medical reports.
Although Palestinian attacks against Israelis in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem are relatively frequent, they rarely leave such a high death toll as Monday's. The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas praised two"resistance fighters" who it said carried out the attack, but stopped short of claiming direct responsibility. Islamic Jihad, another terrorist group, also praised the action.
