Seven people were wounded, including two seriously, in a suspected terror attack on the outskirts of Jerusalem’s Old City in the pre-dawn hours of Sunday, authorities said.
According to authorities, shots were fired at a bus on a road near the Western Wall, and also at a nearby parking lot near King David’s Tomb outside the Old City’s Zion Gate.
Among those injured in the attack was a 35-year-old pregnant woman who was shot while sitting in a nearby car, Hebrew media reported. Doctors described his abdominal injury as “complex” and his life was said to be in danger.
Also among the injured were four members of a Hasidic family from Satmar who came from the United States as tourists on Wednesday. The parents, son and daughter were waiting for a taxi at a bus stop when they were shot near King David’s tomb. The father of the family was said to be in serious condition, sedated and on a ventilator, while the mother was in moderate condition.
According to reports, the alleged perpetrator had waited for the bus to arrive and fired shots as the passengers boarded, before fleeing.
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“The bus was full, full. I stopped at a bus stop at King David’s tomb and then I heard shots, people started screaming, people were injured inside the bus,” he said bus driver Daniel Kanievsky to Hebrew media.
The driver said he wanted to leave but couldn’t because passengers were helping a woman in a wheelchair onto the bus, with the ramp down preventing the door from closing.
“I waited half an hour before the bus arrived,” the Ynet news site quoted eyewitness Avraham Deutsch as saying. “I heard three shots, I jumped inside the bus and lay down with everyone. I immediately understood that it was a terrorist attack, and then there were screams of terror. Everyone called the police. I saw two elderly people on the ground and two young people wounded in the shoulder”.
“It was a very difficult scene, the blood-soaked tzitzit and the abandoned baby carriage will remain in my memory for many years,” said Moshe Levy of the emergency organization United Hatzalah, referring to the ritual fringes knots worn by observant Jews.
Police inspect the scene of a suspected terrorist shooting outside Jerusalem’s Old City on August 14, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The Magen David Adom Ambulance Service (MDA) said its medics treated two people who were seriously injured, as well as five others who were said to be in light to moderate conditions.
The victims were taken to hospitals in Jerusalem, MDA said. Shaare Zedek Medical Center said five people arrived from the incident, including two in serious condition, one in moderate condition and two with minor injuries. Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital said two people arrived with gunshot wounds and were being examined, and four people suffered acute anxiety after the shooting.
Suspected shooting attack in the Old City of Jerusalem: 7 injured, two of them seriously, in two different scenes. The terrorist @VeredPelman is being pursued (Photo: Itamar Carmon) pic.twitter.com/S7JjWtJEPB
— Here news (@kann_news) August 13, 2022
The alleged attackers reportedly fled the scene in the direction of East Jerusalem’s nearby Silwan neighborhood, and police said they were treating the incident as a suspected terrorist attack.
“A large number of police forces have arrived at the scene and have begun securing the area, investigating the case and searching for the suspect who fled,” police said, adding that Jerusalem District Commander, Doron Turgeman, made an assessment of the situation at the scene.
Police cordoned off the area after the attack and briefly prevented worshipers from entering and exiting the Western Wall compound.
The scene of a suspected terrorist attack outside Jerusalem’s Old City, August 14, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
According to Palestinian media reports, officers entered Silwan to search the area for the alleged gunmen.
The Palestinian terror group Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, quickly praised the attack, calling it “heroic” and saying it was “a natural response to the occupation’s daily crimes against our people, our country and the main Muslim and Christian sites”.
The incident came a week after an intense three-day round of fighting between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), an Iran-backed terror group also based in Gaza and considered tougher than Hamas. More than 1,000 rockets were fired at Israeli cities, while the Israel Defense Forces carried out airstrikes targeting PIJ targets in the Strip. Gaza authorities say 49 Palestinians were killed, many of whom Israel says were killed by misfired PIJ rockets that landed in Gaza.
Since March, 19 people, mostly Israeli civilians inside Israel, have been killed in attacks, mostly by Palestinians. Three Israeli Arab attackers were also killed.
AFP contributed to this report.
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