(Jerusalem) Three Israelis, including two women, were killed and several injured in two attacks Thursday in West Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, one of which was claimed by Palestinian Hamas despite a truce in the war against Israel in Gaza .
The first attack took place around 7:40 a.m. (12:40 a.m. Eastern Time) in west Jerusalem when two Palestinian attackers opened fire at a bus stop, killing three Israelis and wounding several others, according to the police and emergency services.
“Two terrorists who came by car and armed one with an M-16 (assault rifle) and the other with a pistol” opened fire, Jerusalem Police Director Doron Torgemann said. at the scene of the attack.
The two attackers, brothers in their thirties who had previously been incarcerated by Israel, “were quickly killed by two off-duty soldiers and a civilian, who shot at them,” according to police.
Two women aged 67 and 24 and a 73-year-old man, all three of Israeli nationality, were killed in the attack, police added.
“This operation is a natural response to the unprecedented crimes of the occupier (Israel, Editor’s note) in the Gaza Strip and against children in Jenin,” declared the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in a statement.
He was referring to two boys, aged eight and 15, killed on Wednesday by the Israeli army in Jenin in the northern West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
According to the statement, the two attackers were members of the armed wing of Hamas and were from Sour Baher, a neighborhood in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian part of the city occupied and annexed by Israel.
“Our heroes are ready to avenge the blood of the martyrs,” concludes Hamas, calling for an “escalation of resistance” against Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted by assuring that his government “will continue to extend the distribution of weapons to citizens”.
The second attack, with a car ram, targeted an Israeli forces checkpoint in the West Bank, according to an army statement.
“Soldiers present on the scene shot and neutralized the attacker,” she added, noting that two Israeli soldiers, slightly injured, had been hospitalized.
The dam, adjacent to the Israeli settlement of Beka’ot, has been the target of several similar attacks in recent years.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Around 490,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank, considered by the UN to be illegal under international law.
Visiting Israel, American Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the attack on West Jerusalem was a reminder of “the terrorist threat faced on a daily basis by Israel”.
Mr. Herzog deplored “another example of the situation we find ourselves in, the endless war we are waging against terrorist organizations, especially Hamas.”