Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a crowded bus stop in the northern outskirts of Jerusalem on Monday, killing six people and injuring 12 others before being shot dead by an off-duty soldier and a civilian at the scene.
The victims included a 79-year-old former cardiologist, a 43-year-old rabbi and a 25-year-old who had recently emigrated from Spain. Twenty six others suffered injuries, including six who were left in a serious condition with gunshot wounds.
The Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Saar, later said the attackers were Palestinians from the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Speaking while on a visit to Hungary, he described a “terrible terror attack”, adding: “We are in a war with radical Islamist terrorism. Europe and the international community, every country, must now make a clear choice. Are they on Israel’s side, or are they on the side of the jihadists?”
After the attack, the Israeli military said it was encircling Palestinian villages on the outskirts of the nearby West Bank city of Ramallah.
Eyal Zamir, the Israeli Defense Forces’ chief of staff, later said in a statement that he “ordered a full closure of the area from which the terrorists came”.
“We will continue with a determined and ongoing operational and intelligence effort, we will pursue terror cells everywhere, and we will thwart terrorist infrastructure and its organisers,” he said.
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, issued a statement condemning “any targeting of Palestinian and Israeli civilians”.
Hamas praised two Palestinian “resistance fighters” who it said had carried out the attack, but stopped short of claiming responsibility. Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian militant group, also praised the shooting without claiming responsibility.
The war in Gaza has sparked a surge of violence in the occupied West Bank and in Israel. Palestinian militants have attacked and killed Israelis, while there has been a steep rise in settler violence against Palestinians.
Data from the UN’s humanitarian office says at least 49 Israelis have been killed by Palestinians in Israel or the West Bank between the start of the war and July 2025. In that time, Israeli forces and civilians have killed at least 968 Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank.
On Monday evening, Wafa, the official news agency of the Palestinian Authority, said Israeli forces had killed a 14-year-old Palestinian during a raid in Jenin, in the north of the West Bank. There was no immediate confirmation of the report.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, visited the site of the attack in Jerusalem with his far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir. “The war continues, in Jerusalem as well,” Netanyahu said.
The attack took place at the Ramot intersection at the northern entrance to Jerusalem in an area occupied by Israel in 1967 and later annexed – a move the UN and most countries do not recognise. The busy intersection was choked by cars and commuters during the rush hour.
Images shared on social media appeared to show a Carlo submachine gun discarded at the scene.
These weapons can be crudely manufactured in small metal shops, and models produced by gunsmiths in the West Bank have been used in attacks by Palestinians on Israelis.
While there have been scattered attacks in Israel over recent months, the last deadly mass shooting was in October 2024, when two Palestinians from the West Bank opened fire on a major boulevard and light railway station in the Tel Aviv area, killing seven people and leaving many others wounded. Hamas’s military wing claimed responsibility for that attack.
France strongly condemned the attack on Monday in a post on social media. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, offered his condolences to the victims and the Israeli people.
“The spiral of violence must come to an end. Only a political solution will bring back peace and stability for all in the region,” he said on X.
Spain, the EU, Germany and the United Arab Emirates also issued statements of condemnation.