A firearms attack on a bus in Jerusalem has caused six dead on Monday morning, including a young Spanish, and several injured in serious condition, according to the star of David Roja de Israel, the National Emergency and Medical Assistance Service. The two assailants have been killed in the place of the events, according to a statement from the police bodies, which point to a terrorist attack.
The deceased Spanish has been identified as Yaakov Pinto, 25 years old and a native of Melilla, who lived in Israel. A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed his death and condemned “sharply the terrorist attack in East Jerusalem”, Miguel González reports.
The young Melillense, who had just married, has died in the same place of the attack along with two other men in about 30 years and a male of about 50 years. The other two victims have later died in hospitals in the city.
The aggression took place inside a public bus, in which the two men rose in a stop in the vicinity of Ramot, an illegal Israeli settlement in east Jerusalem. Israel’s security authorities have indicated that assailants were Palestinian citizens of the West Bank. Specifically, it is believed that they were originally from municipalities near Ramala, where there are already information about the beginning of raids in search of information or accomplices that have been able to enable the attack.
This is the greatest attack on these characteristics in Jerusalem since November 2023, when the war in Gaza had only one month. From that moment, the Israeli authorities have further restricted the crosses between the Israeli territory and the occupied West Bank, allowing traffic only to the Palestinians who have authorization of the Israel Army. That the assailants have managed to overcome these militarized barriers is now one of the greatest concerns of the Israeli authorities.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamín Netanyahu, has immediately met with the country’s security authorities to “evaluate the situation,” as reported in a statement. Shortly after, Prime Minister and Itamar Ben Gvir, the ultra -rightist Minister of Israeli National Security, have addressed the place of the shooting. The prime minister was summoned Monday morning to the trial that is followed against him for several corruption positions.
“A powerful war against terrorism is getting rid on all fronts,” said Netanyahu from the place of the attack before the Israeli media. The prime minister has assured that the Army and the Intelligence Agencies of Israel have recently frustrated “hundreds of attacks” such as this Monday that came from assailants in the West Bank. “But unfortunately, not (they have been able to do it) this morning.”
The attack is produced in the middle of the resurgence of the Israeli offensive in the strip, where Israel is demolishing residential buildings in recent days, in what is a new pressure tactic to expel the million of Gazatis that concentrate in Gaza City. Although the US now tries to give a new boost to negotiations to reach a high fire that ends with the offensive in the enclave, the sensation prevailing during the last weeks has been of diplomatic stagnation and inactivity.
The greatest attack on civilian population in Jerusalem since 2023 also happens while West Bank, territory occupied by Israel since 1967, suffers the largest wave of forced displacements since that year. In what the Israeli army presents as an operation against Palestinian armed groups, the troops have expelled 40,000 Palestinians from the refugee fields in Yenín and Tulkarem from their homes, using mass destruction tactics similar to those used in Gaza.
It is unknown if the authors of this shooting were affiliated with some Palestinian armed group. Hamas has issued a statement immediately after the attack in which the attack has described as “a heroic operation.” “We affirm that this operation is a natural response to the crimes of the occupation (in reference to Israel) and the extermination war that is carrying out against our people,” said the militia in a statement, in which he calls the Palestinians of the West Bank to “climb the confrontation” against the soldiers and against the Israeli settlers. Islamic jihad, another armed militia with a presence in the strip, has published another statement in the same terms.
Armed civilians
Different Israeli media collect that an Israeli soldier who was in the place of the events and an Israeli civilian who was armed are the ones who have dejected the assailants. In Israel, an important part of Citizens carries out their daily activities while they are armed. This circumstance was even more normalized after the attacks that Hamas launched against Israel on October 7, 2023. In Israel, it is common to see civilians who feel on a terrace or go to the library with a assault rifle hanging from the shoulder.
Often, when it identifies the origin of the Palestinian assailants who launch or plan attacks against Israel, the Israeli army usually isolate their municipalities of origin, applying what human rights organizations denounce as a collective punishment. These operations usually include arrests, sometimes violent, against relatives and neighbors, in addition to the demolition of family residence, even if the suspect is in jail or has been dejected. Netanyahu has clarified that the security forces are already “chasing and surrounding the villages where the terrorists came.”
“The bus was full,” said a survivor in statements to the Israeli television channel chain 12: “The door has opened and the terrorists have risen. It has been terrible.” The woman, who was near the back door at the time of the event, has managed to escape and hide under a nearby vehicle until the assailants have been dejected. “There have been shots beyond the imaginable. I can’t believe it is here.”
For more updates, visit our homepage: NewsTimesWire
