Jerusalem — Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a bus stop in north Jerusalem on Monday, killing six people and wounding several others, including a pregnant woman, according to officials. The attack targeted a location on a road that leads to East Jerusalem.

Israeli emergency service Magen David Adom (MDA) said five people were killed in the shooting attack, but Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, speaking later during a visit to Hungary, said six people were killed and that a pregnant woman was among those wounded. 

Police said two gunmen were also killed. The MDA said earlier that seven people were left in serious condition, but it was unclear if that number had changed as the death toll climbed from an initial four to the six announced by Saar.

The dead included a man “about 50 years old and three men aged around 30,” according to the statement from the MDA, which added that it was providing medical treatment to several of those injured.

The late morning attack took place at the Ramot Junction on Yigal Street, an earlier statement by MDA said.

“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,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said in a social media post. “In the face of this barbarity, we saw extraordinary acts of heroism which prevented even further loss of innocent lives.
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.”  

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was holding a meeting to assess the situation after the shooting, his office said.

Hamas, the U.S. and Israeli-designated terrorist organization that has been at war with Israel in Gaza for nearly two years, praised the attack, saying it was carried out by two Palestinian militants.

“We affirm that this operation is a natural response to the crimes of the occupation and the genocide it is waging against our people,” Hamas said in a statement.

“The wounded were lying on the road and sidewalk near a bus stop, some of them unconscious,” paramedic Fadi Dekaidek, who was at the scene, said in a statement provided by the MDA.

Police said the attackers had opened fire on a bus stop after arriving in a vehicle.

“A security officer and a civilian at the scene responded immediately, returned fire, and neutralized the attackers,” they said in a statement.

Speaking on Israel’s Channel 12, a police spokesperson said there were two assailants involved, with the force later confirming both were pronounced dead at the scene.

The shooting was one of the deadliest incidents of its kind since the war in Gaza was sparked by the Hamas-orchestrated, Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 64,368 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which the United Nations considers the most reliable information available.