Three killed, six injured in shooting at bus stop
Two Hamas gunmen shot dead at scene; slain victims identified as 24-year-old woman, rabbinical judge Elimelech Wasserman, 73, and elderly woman.
(TIMES OF ISRAEL) Three people were killed and six were wounded, two of them seriously, in a terror shooting attack at the entrance to Jerusalem on Thursday morning, police and medics said.
According to police, at around 7:40 a.m. two Palestinian gunmen got out of a vehicle on Weizman Street at the main entrance to the capital and opened fire at people at a bus stop.
Police said two off-duty soldiers and an armed civilian in the area returned fire, killing the two terrorists.
The attackers were named as brothers Murad Namr, 38, and Ibrahim Namr, 30, from East Jerusalem.
According to the Shin Bet security agency, the pair were Hamas members and previously jailed for terror activity.
Murad was jailed between 2010 and 2020 for planning terror attacks under directions of terror elements in the Gaza Strip and Ibrahim was jailed in 2014 for undisclosed terror activity, the agency said.
Footage showed that the terrorists were armed with an M-16 assault rifle and a handgun. A police search of the vehicle found large amounts of ammunition.
Police said officers were searching the area to rule out any additional attackers.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service said its medics declared the death of a 24-year-old woman at the scene, and was taking eight others to hospitals in Jerusalem.
An elderly man and a woman, who were critically wounded, were later declared dead at a hospital in Jerusalem.
The man was named as Ashdod rabbinical judge Elimelech Wasserman, 73.
Another two victims were listed in serious condition, three in moderate condition, and one in good condition, according to MDA.
The bus stop was the scene of a deadly bomb attack almost exactly a year ago.
Thursday’s attack came as a ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip was holding for the sixth day.
Tensions in Israel and the West Bank have been high since October 7, when some 3,000 terrorists burst through the border into Israel in a Hamas-led attack, killing at least 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and seizing some 240 hostages.
Israel responded with an aerial campaign and subsequent ground operation with the goal of destroying Hamas and ending its 16-year rule over Gaza, and securing the release of the hostages.
The IDF has continued to operate throughout the West Bank and police have been on high alert in Israel, in light of concerns about a possible escalation of violence following the release of Palestinian security prisoners in the exchange for abducted Israeli hostages.
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