Palestinian gunmen shoot dead five people in east Jerusalem attack

Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a bus stop in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on Monday, killing five people and wounding several others.

Israeli emergency service Magen David Adom (MDA) said that in addition to the five dead, seven of the injured were in serious condition. Police said the two gunmen were also killed.

The dead included a man "about 50 years old and three men aged around 30", a statement from MDA said, adding it was providing medical treatment to several of the injured.

The late morning attack took place at the Ramot Junction on Yigal Street, and left about 15 people wounded, an earlier statement by MDA said.

"Let it be clear: these murders strengthen our determination to fight terrorism," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters at the scene of the attack.

The Israeli army said troops were searching the area for suspects, as well as "encircling several areas on the outskirts of Ramallah" in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in response to the attack.

French President Emmanuel Macron "strongly condemned the terrorist attack" which Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul described as "cowardly".

Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has been at war with Israel in the Gaza Strip 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.

- 'Horrific' -

Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich blamed the "horrific" attack on the Palestinian Authority, which he claimed "raises and educates its children to murder Jews".

"The Palestinian Authority must disappear from the map, and the villages from which the attackers came should be reduced to the status of Rafah and Beit Hanoun," he wrote on X, referring to cities in Gaza that have been devastated by Israeli air strikes.

The PA is a civilian ruling authority in areas of the West Bank, where about three million Palestinianslive -- as well as around half a million Israelis occupying settlements considered illegal under international law.

Israeli paramedic Fadi Dekaidek, who was at the scene, said the attack was "severe".

"The wounded were lying on the road and sidewalk near a bus stop, some of them unconscious," he said in a statement issued by MDA.

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

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

The shooting was one of the deadliest incidents of its kind since the war in Gaza began after Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel.

The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 64,368 Palestinians, most of them civilians, accordingto figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.