Key Points
- Hamas gunmen have killed three people at a bus stop in Jerusalem.
- The Israeli military says two soldiers were injured in a car-ramming attack at a checkpoint in the West Bank.
- Israel and Hamas struck a last-minute agreement on Thursday to extend their six-day ceasefire in Gaza by one more day.
Two Hamas gunmen killed three people at a Jerusalem bus stop during morning rush hour on Thursday, and Israel reiterated its commitment to wiping out the Palestinian Islamist faction.
The attackers, Palestinians from East Jerusalem, were shot dead by off-duty soldiers and an armed civilian, police said. At least eight people were also wounded in the shooting.
“The terrorists arrived at the scene by car in the morning, armed with an M-16 rifle and a handgun,” police said. “The terrorists began shooting at civilians before subsequently being killed at the scene.”
The White House on Thursday condemned the shooting and said the US will continue efforts with Qatar and Egypt to extend
“We obviously condemn this terrorist attack,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
Security camera footage obtained by Reuters shows a white car stopping beside the crowded bus stop. Two men then step out, guns drawn, and charge at the crowd as people scatter. Shortly afterwards the Palestinian attackers are themselves shot.
A large number of first-responders and security forces converged on the area that was crowded with morning commuters. The slain victims were identified by Israeli media as a woman in her 20s, a woman in her 60s and a 74-year-old rabbi.
Israel’s Shin Bet security agency identified the gunmen as 30- and 38-year-old brothers who were affiliated with Hamas, which runs Gaza. Both had previously been jailed in Israel.
“It is the same Hamas that carried out the horrible 7 October massacre, the same Hamas that tries to murder us everywhere,” Netanyahu said, shortly after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Jerusalem. “I told him (Blinken): ‘We swore, I swore, to eradicate Hamas. Nothing will stop us.'”
Hamas claimed responsibility for the Jerusalem attack, deeming it “heroic”.
Israel and Hamas agreed to a further extension to a truce that has lasted nearly a week. Source: Getty, Supplied / GPO/Getty Images
“The operation came as a natural response to unprecedented crimes conducted by the Occupation (Israel),” it said in a statement, citing the military offensive in Gaza and the treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Separately, in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military said two soldiers were injured in a car-ramming attack at a checkpoint. Troops at the scene “shot and neutralised the assailant,” it said.
The Palestinian health ministry said the presumed attacker had been killed while another man died separately in the West Bank town of Beitunia.
The 17 Thai nationals who were kidnapped by Hamas are the first group of Thai nationals who have been released and returned to Thailand. Source: AAP, Supplied / SOPA Images/Sipa USA
Witnesses said he was killed during a clash between troops and stone-throwing youths as a crowd gathered outside the nearby Ofer prison where a group of detainees were due to be released under an exchange to free Israeli hostages in Gaza.
The violence came as Israel and Hamas to extend their to allow negotiators to keep working on deals to swap hostages held in the enclave for Palestinian prisoners.
Hamas on Thursday handed two female hostages to the Red Cross in Gaza City’s central Palestine Square and further hostages are expected to be released later in the evening following a struck with Israel to extend a truce.
Israel identified the freed hostages as 21-year-old Mia Schem, who was seized at a dance party along with many of the other hostages abducted into Gaza, and 40-year-old Amit Soussana. Schem also holds French nationality.
Footage aired on Aljazeera showed the women being taken out of a white vehicle surrounded by armed Hamas militants in Gaza City and met by Red Cross officials, amid a throng of onlookers.
Later, photos released by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office showed Schem embracing her mother and brother after they were reunited at Hatzerim military base in Israel.
Mia Schem had appeared in a hostage video released by Hamas in October which showed her injured arm being treated by an unidentified medical worker.
Her father David told Israel’s Channel 12 TV on Thursday that when they meet, he will not say a word to her. “I don’t want to ask her questions, because I don’t know what she endured.”
The significant escalation is the latest boiling point in a
Hamas is a Palestinian military and political group, gaining power in the Gaza Strip since winning legislative elections there in 2006.
Hamas’s stated aim is to establish a Palestinian state, while refusing to recognise Israel’s right to exist.
Hamas, in its entirety, is designated as a terrorist organisation by countries including Australia, Canada, the UK and the US.
Some countries list only its military wing as a terrorist group.
Other countries voted against a UN resolution condemning Hamas in its entirety, as a terrorist organisation.
