#injured #terrorist #attack #bus #Jerusalem
Seven people were injured, two critically, after a gunman opened fire on a bus in Jerusalem’s Old City early Sunday, Israeli police and paramedics said.
The Israeli rescue service Magen David Adom (MDA) called the incident a “terrorist attack in the old city”.
An AFP reporter noted heightened security around the crime scene, not far from Jerusalem’s Western Wall, the Jews’ holiest place of worship.
Police have launched a search for the gunman, who fled after the pre-dawn attack.
“Police have been notified of a shooting on a bus … Police have cordoned off the scene and are looking for a suspect,” police said.
MDA spokesman Zaki Heller said six men and one woman were injured in the attack, all seven “conscious”.
MDA paramedics said they gave life-saving treatments to people with gunshot wounds, both on the bus and in the car park at King David’s Tomb.
All victims were taken to nearby hospitals.
“We were on site very quickly,” lead EMT Nehemia Katz and paramedic David Trachtenberg said in a statement. “We saw a passenger bus parked in the middle of the street on Ma’ale Hashalom St. Passers-by called us to treat two men in their 30s who were on the bus with gunshot wounds.”
Bus driver Daniel Kanievsky described a chaotic scene that suddenly erupted.
“I came from the Western Wall. The bus was full of passengers,” he told reporters in front of his bullet-riddled vehicle.
“I stopped at the station of David’s tomb. At that moment the shooting began. I see two people outside falling, two inside bleeding. Everyone panicked.”
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The shooting came about a week after a three-day clash between Israel and Islamic Jihad fighters in the densely populated Palestinian enclave of Gaza.
At least 49 Palestinians, including Islamic Jihad fighters and children, died in the violence, which ended last Sunday after Egypt negotiated a ceasefire.
Since March, 19 people – mostly Israeli civilians inside Israel – have been killed in attacks, mostly by Palestinians. Three Israeli Arab attackers were also killed.
As a result, the Israeli authorities stepped up raids in the occupied West Bank.
More than 50 Palestinians, including militants and civilians, have since been killed in operations and incidents in the West Bank.
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