Six people were killed and over 28 others were wounded when gunmen opened fire at Jerusalem’s Ramot Junction on Monday. Israeli officials warned that the incident could mark the beginning of a broader escalation of violence in the West Bank.
The two terrorists behind the attack attempted to board a bus at the junction but were stopped by the bus driver, who closed the doors. The terrorists then began firing at the people waiting at the bus stop and at nearby buses.
Chaos erupted, with footage from the scene showing crowds running in all directions and drivers fleeing their vehicles. In one video, a taxi driver was seen protecting his passenger, an elderly woman, helping her get out of the car and get to safety, even as bullets were flying near him.
The terrorists were shot and killed by a soldier from the Haredi Hasmonean Brigade and several civilians at the scene before security forces arrived.
The shooters, residents of the West Bank towns of Al-Qubeiba and Qatanna, were in Israel without permits. The two snuck through a breach in the fence between Jerusalem and the West Bank near the Qalandiya crossing before getting a ride with an Israeli Arab into Jerusalem, according to an initial investigation.
After the attack, the crossings between Jerusalem and the West Bank were closed, and Israeli forces surrounded Al-Qubeiba and Qatanna and launched searches for the suspects. Security forces had arrested several relatives of the terrorists and a person suspected of driving them to the Ramot Junction as of Monday evening.
Israel is preparing for a possible escalation in the West Bank
In recent weeks, Israeli defense officials have warned that tensions in the West Bank were rising in light of the High Holidays and the planned declarations by several countries to recognize a Palestinian state at the U.N. General Assembly.
Some Israeli officials, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, have called for the government to establish sovereignty over at least parts of the West Bank in response to the planned declarations recognizing a Palestinian state. The United Arab Emirates warned that such a move would be a “red line” and threaten the Abraham Accords agreements between Israel and the UAE. In response to the UAE’s warning, a planned discussion by the Israeli cabinet about annexation was taken off the agenda.
Last week, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Ghasan Alyan, warned government ministers that Israel was facing an imminent escalation from the West Bank, according to Israel’s KAN news.
Alyan pointed to the difficult economic situation in the West Bank, the weakening of the Palestinian Authority, and an increase in incitement as factors that could lead to an escalation.
Despite the recent attack, there has been a 90% decrease in the number of severe terrorist attacks over the past year, according to KAN. In 2024, there were 185 shooting attacks, while this year, only 13 were reported.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed on Monday evening that Israel would replicate large-scale operations it conducted in several Palestinian towns and cities in the West Bank over the past few years in other cities.
“We have already eliminated nests of terror in three refugee camps,” Netanyahu said. “We simply evacuated the population from there and flattened all the terror infrastructure – and my instruction is to do the same in other nests of terror.”
After the attack, Smotrich said that “the Palestinian Authority should disappear from the map and the villages from which the terrorists came should look like Rafah and Beit Hanoun (two cities in Gaza that have been largely destroyed in the war).”
“The State of Israel cannot accept a Palestinian Authority that raises and educates its children to murder Jews,” Smotrich added.
