WARNING: Graphic
Israel’s emergency service is responding to a terror attack that left four dead and more than a dozen people injured in Jerusalem.
The attack occurred at a road junction in east Jerusalem, with police saying the two assailants had been “neutralised”.
One of the victims was reportedly his 50s and three others were in their thirties.
“At 10:13am (5:13pm AEDT), reports were received … about approximately 15 injured, apparently from gunfire, at the Ramot Junction on Yigal Yadin Street in Jerusalem,” a statement by Magen David Adom said.
It later said paramedics and ambulance crews were providing medical treatment and evacuating five “seriously wounded people” who had been sent to hospitals in Jerusalem.
“Several other victims, with varying degrees of injury, are also being treated at the scene,” it added.
Police said preliminary reports indicated “several people were injured as a result of the shooting, and the terrorists were neutralised”.
Speaking on Israel’s Channel 12, a police spokesperson said there were two assailants involved in the attack.
Israeli media reported that the attack had targeted a bus, among other targets.
Dashcam footage released shortly after the attack showed the chilling moment motorists heard the initial gunshots and fled the motorway on foot. One taxi driver was hailed a hero for remaining behind after the initial stampede to help his passenger, an elderly woman, flee the scene.
The world is beginning to react to the horrific event, with Germany’s foreign minister saying the nation is “shocked by cowardly terror attack”.
Attack was ‘severe’
Paramedic Fadi Dekaidek, who was at the scene, said the attack was “severe”.
“The wounded were lying on the road and sidewalk near a bus stop, some of them unconscious,” he said in a statement issued by MDA.
Police said the attackers had opened fire towards a bus stop after arriving in a vehicle.“
A security officer and a civilian at the scene responded immediately, returned fire, and neutralised the attackers,” they said in a statement.
Speaking on Israel’s Channel 12, a police spokesperson said there were two assailants involved, with the force later confirming both were pronounced dead at the scene.
The shooting was one of the deadliest incidents of its kind since the war in Gaza began after Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel.
The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 64,368 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.
