At least six people were killed and more than 14 were injured, seven of them seriously, as two terrorists, wielding an improvised submachine gun and a pistol, opened fire at a bus stop in Jerusalem’s Ramot neighborhood this morning, Israeli authorities said. It was the deadliest terror attack in Israel in nearly a year.

The attack, which was apparently carried out by Palestinian terrorists from the West Bank, comes amid a renewed push to negotiate a ceasefire and hostage-release deal for the war against Hamas in Gaza. The gunmen were shot dead at the scene by an armed off-duty soldier who serves in the recently formed Hasmonean Brigade, a special unit created to allow Haredi Israelis to serve in the military without having to significantly alter their lifestyle. 

“A painful and difficult morning. Innocent civilians, women, men and children were brutally murdered and wounded in cold blood on a bus in Jerusalem by vile and evil terrorists. In the face of this barbarity, we saw extraordinary acts of heroism which prevented even further loss of innocent lives,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said after the attack. 

“This shocking attack reminds us once again that we are fighting absolute evil. The world must understand what we are up against, and that terror will never defeat us,” he said.

Four of the victims have been identified so far, all of them coming from the Haredi community: Rabbi Levi Yitzhak Pash, Yaakov Pinto, Rabbi Yosef Dovid and Yisrael Mastner.

Israel’s Immigration and Absorption Ministry noted that Pinto, 25, had immigrated to Israel from Spain in 2020 and had gotten married in June. “The Immigration and Absorption Ministry will continue to bring thousands of immigrations to Israel like Yaakov, who make aliyah out of love and aspiration. This is our Zionist answer to the lowly murderers like those who set out this morning to murder Jews,” the ministry said.

The involvement of a Haredi soldier in killing the terrorists comes as the issue of Haredi enlistment in the military is being hotly debated in Israel, fueling calls for the government to end the near-blanket exemptions for Haredi men. “The soldier who killed the vile terrorists is Haredi, a squad commander in the Hasmonean Brigade, who prevented an even harsher massacre and saved lives. Hero,” Avigdor Liberman, head of the Israel Beiteinu party and a staunch advocate for Haredi enlistment, wrote on X.

The victims were taken to Jerusalem’s three main hospitals — Hadassah Ein Kerem, Hadassah Mt. Scopus and the Shaare Zedek Medical Center — for treatment. The Israeli military said that it was ramping up its activities in the West Bank to prevent further attacks and capture any of the terrorists’ abettors. 

This morning’s bus shooting is the deadliest attack in Israel since the Oct. 1, 2024, Hamas attack in Jaffa, in which seven people were killed and 17 others injured.

Jewish groups around the world condemned the attack. “Jewish Federations of North America are heartbroken and outraged by today’s horrific terrorist attack in Jerusalem, which claimed the lives of six innocent Israelis and injured many more who were simply trying to ride the bus,” JFNA said in a statement. “At this moment of grief, we stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Israel. An attack on Israelis going about their daily lives is an attack on the Jewish people.”

“British Jews express our solidarity with Israelis following the gruesome terrorist attack on a commuter bus in Ramot, Jerusalem, this morning. We share the anguish of the families of those killed, and wish a full and speedy recovery to all those injured,” Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, wrote in a statement. “The U.K., like too many other countries, has sadly all come to know the scourge of terror and attacks on British civilians. It is an evil we must confront together.”