Six killed as gunmen open fire at Jerusalem bus stop

Six persons were killed and eight others injured after two gunmen opened fire at a bus stop on the outskirts of Jerusalem on Monday, reported Reuters.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the gunmen were Palestinians from the occupied West Bank.

Israel claims the whole of Jerusalem as its capital, while Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state they hope to establish in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The “two terrorists arrived in a vehicle” and opened fire towards the bus stop at the Ramot Junction area, BBC quoted the Israeli Police as saying.

They were reportedly shot dead at the scene by a soldier and an armed civilian.

Israeli media identified the victims as five men – Yaakov Pinto (25), Yisrael Matzner (28), Rabbi Yosef David (43), Mordechai “Mark” Steinsag (79) and Levi Yitzhak Pash – and a 60-year-old woman, Sarah Mendelson.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog condemned the shooting as “cold-blooded murder” by “evil terrorists”.

The Palestinian presidency reiterated its position of “rejecting and condemning any targeting of Palestinian and Israeli civilians and denouncing all forms of violence and terrorism regardless of their source”, Wafa news agency reported.

Palestinian militant group Hamas praised the shooting as a “heroic and exceptional operation”.

The group called it a “natural response to the crimes of the occupation [Israel]...

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