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Israelis killed in Jerusalem bus stabbing Israelis killed in Jerusalem bus stabbing and car ramming
(about 1 hour later)
Two people have been killed and 16 injured in a stabbing attack on a Jerusalem bus as an escalating spate of violence grips Israel and Palestine. Another Israeli was killed in a separate attack in the city. Two Palestinians armed with a knife and a gun launched a deadly attack on a Jerusalem bus on Tuesday morning, killing two Israelis and injuring three more in the worst day of violence since the start of the current escalation in tensions.
According to witnesses, a Palestinian man began stabbing passengers on the No 78 bus as it passed through Jerusalem on Tuesday morning. The unarmed driver managed to escape and alert another driver, who called the police. Officers then shot and killed the attacker, though they said there was a second man involved.
Related: Israel-Palestine unrest: stabbing attack on Jerusalem bus – live updatesRelated: Israel-Palestine unrest: stabbing attack on Jerusalem bus – live updates
A 60-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics. A 45-year-old man critically wounded was later pronounced dead at Sha’are Tzedek hospital, Israel medical authorities said. In an almost simultaneous attack, in a Jewish neighbourhood of the city, an assailant rammed a car into a bus station before stabbing bystanders, killing one and injuring two others.
After the incident, the body of the attacker lay on the ground under a white tarpaulin as ambulances ferried the wounded away. Amid calls by Jerusalem’s mayor Nir Barkat to seal Palestinian neighbourhoods of the city, Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu was due to meet in emergency session with his security cabinet to consider his response later on Tuesday.
The bus stabbing came as reports emerged of a second attack in the city involving a car. A Palestinian rammed his car into a bus stop in the city centre, then got out and began stabbing pedestrians, killing at least one and wounding several, police said. The attacker was “neutralised”, officers added, without giving details. By 1pm local time three Israelis had been killed in four separate attacks and more than 20 injured, half a dozen of them seriously, as Israeli security forces moved to swamp Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is swamped with police and other security forces amid planned Palestinian protests and a general strike called both for Israeli Arabs and Palestinians. The attacks on the bus and the station came on top of two other reported stabbing attacks in the central Israeli city of Ra’anana.
According to Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, two attackers were involved in the assault on the bus, one with a knife and the other with a gun. Rosenfeld could not confirm whether shots were fired. The attack on the number 78 Egged bus in the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Armon Hanatziv and the car ramming took place within about 20 minutes of each other on a day when both Israelis and Palestinians had been bracing for more violence amid planned protests.
Rosenfeld told journalists at the scene: “Here in Armon HaNetziv, a quiet neighbourhood of Jerusalem, two terrorists attacked a bus with a knife and a pistol … While we were dealing with this, another attack took place in a religious neighbourhood of Jerusalem in which three people were injured, as well as an attack in Ra’anana.” The two attackers boarded the bus and started attacking passengers, including a man in his 60s who died at the scene. A second passenger was declared dead on arrival at hospital.
Since the Jewish New Year last month, seven Israelis have been killed and dozens wounded in a shooting, a stoning and a series of stabbings. At least 27 Palestinians been killed by Israeli fire, including 11 identified by Israel as attackers, and the rest in clashes between stone-throwers and Israeli troops. Hundreds of Palestinians have been wounded in confrontations. At the scene of the attack the bodies of those involved in the killings were still visible on the ground next to the bus covered in a white tarpaulin. Bullet holes were also visible in the bus’s windscreen, although it was not clear if they were the result of the initial attack or police gunfire.
As angry locals gathered near the bus some called for revenge, with one individual demanding “a Jewish intifada”.
A social worker at the scene, who was comforting a woman, said the driver of the bus – who was unarmed – had stopped when he realised an attack was under way and escaped the bus to raise the alarm with the driver of the second bus following behind.
Another witness, who was leaving a local clinic, described seeing the bus driver shouting “Terrorists, terrorists!” as he fled the bus.
According to local media one of the attackers was shot by a security guard nearby while the remaining attacker stayed on the bus and locked the doors before being shot by police as they arrived.
Yehuda Ben Yosef, a local official in Armon Hanatziv, told Israel radio after the attack: “Today was terrible. This was a barbaric act, a massacre of our residents, of people who never thought for a moment that a despicable terrorist would get up and murder them in cold blood on a bus. People who had done nothing wrong. This is a very terrible thing. The very quick action of a neighbourhood resident, who blocked the bus, the action of the driver who opened the doors and the resourcefulness of others must be noted.”
The ramming attack took place on Malkhei Yisrael Street in Geula where an east Jerusalem resident drove a car into a bus stop and hit two pedestrians – one of whom, reportedly a rabbi, was killed and the other seriously wounded.
The driver then got out of the vehicle and stabbed the two wounded people before being shot.
Amid a growing sense of crisis, police closed several major highways leading in and out of Jerusalem and swamped the city with security forces, with groups of armed police visible on major junctions and entrances to Palestinian neighbourhoods.
As news of the latest attacks emerged, Netanyahu called an emergency meeting of his security cabinet, where police were to present a plan to halt the violence.
Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said the country’s internal security minister, Gilad Erdan, was considering a number of immediate steps, including a closure of Arab neighbourhoods in east Jerusalem, where many of the attackers have come from, and making it easier to get gun licences.
While Israelis are on edge over the random nature of the attacks, the long-running diplomatic deadlock has left many Palestinians feeling hopeless about their chances of ending nearly half a century of Israeli occupation.
The Jerusalem attacks, coupled with a pair of stabbing attacks in the central Israeli city of Ra’anana that injured five, came in rapid succession. Emergency services said several of the wounded were in serious condition.
At the scene of one of the attacks, Barkat called on the government to seal off the West Bank and certain Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem to quell the wave of attacks that have struck the city.
Since the Jewish new year last month, seven Israelis have been killed and dozens wounded in violence including a shooting, a stoning and a series of stabbings.
At least 27 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, including 11 identified by Israel as attackers and the rest in clashes between stone-throwers and Israeli troops. Hundreds of Palestinians have been wounded in such confrontations.
On Monday, Palestinians carried out three stabbings in Jerusalem, leaving a teenage Israeli boy in critical condition.
The unrest began last month with clashes at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site and quickly spread across Israel and into the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The attacks come at a time of deep despair for the Palestinians. Peace talks broke down more than a year ago, and prospects for relaunching diplomatic efforts to end the conflict appear nil. After years of diplomatic deadlock, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has seen his popularity plunge.
The attackers, many of them teenagers, have had no affiliation with militant groups, and the seemingly random nature of the stabbings has made it difficult to predict or prevent them.