Warning
TRUCE ON KNIFE EDGE
Hamas ‘admits it’s BROKEN’ truce to carry out deadly Jerusalem attack as Israel issues chilling response
The attack happened right after the Israel-Hamas truce was extended for another day
HAMAS appeared to admit breaching its tense truce with Israel as it boasted of carrying out a deadly terror attack in Jerusalem that left three civilians dead.
Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said the attack “proves again…that we must speak to Hamas only through (rifle) scopes, only through war” after the atrocity.
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The horror attack happened this morning when two gunmen open fire at a packed bus station in Jerusalem shortly after the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement was extended.
The terror group's military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the shooting branding it "heroic" and saying it was in response to killing the "children and women in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank."
The group also called for an "escalation of the resistance."
"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.
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In a chilling response, Israeli PM Netanyahu said after a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken: "It is the same Hamas that carried out the horrible Oct. 7 massacre, the same Hamas that tries to murder us everywhere.
"I told him (Blinken): 'We swore, I swore, to eradicate Hamas. Nothing will stop us.'"
While National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said: "This event proves again how we must not show weakness, that we must speak to Hamas only through (rifle) scopes, only through war."
Dramatic footage shows bystanders fleeing in panic as gunshots are heard while cars are rushing to leave the scene.
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Officials said the victims included a 24-year-old woman and a 73-year-old man while another eight people were wounded in the attack.
The two gunmen, reportedly brothers from Jerusalem's Sur Baher were shot down dead at the scene by civilians.
The gunmen were identified by the Shin Bet security agency as Hamas members Murad Namr, 38, and Ibrahim Namr, 30.
According to the intelligence service, they were both previously jailed for terror activity.
Murad was jailed for ten years in 2010 for planning terror attacks under direction from Gaza while Ibrahim was jailed in 2014.
Israeli police said: "Two terrorists arrived at the scene in a vehicle armed with firearms, these terrorists opened fire towards civilians at the bus station and were subsequently neutralized by security forces and a nearby civilian.
The city's deputy mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum said it was hero civilians who shot the two attackers.
She confirmed that three people were killed adding that five remain in hospital "very badly injured."
"People just going about their day, waiting for the bus, got cruelly shot by two gunmen with long guns, indiscriminately, and the hospital is now full of injured as well," she said.
She added that while little is known about the gunmen "we probably know that they're coming from the sleeper cells that we have around here."
One of the victims was identified as Ashdod rabbinical judge Elimelech Wasserman, 73.
The offices of Rabbis Yitzhak Yosef and David Lau paid tribute to "a senior, gifted and dedicated dayan," saying he was “murdered by a vile person," the reported.
Jerusalem Police District Commander Doron Turgeman told reporters at the scene the attackers came from East Jerusalem.
A large number of ambulances and police converged on the street that was crowded with morning commuters, and police said they were searching the area to make sure there were no other attackers.
"The bus station was very crowded, which is why so many people were wounded," Magen David Adom spokesperson Zaki Heller told Army Radio.
The violence came as Israel and Hamas struck a last-minute agreement to extend their truce in Gaza by one more day.
The truce came just minutes before the six-day halt was set to end at 7am local time (5am GMT).
The extended ceasefire will see another 10 hostages released and allow more aid to reach the enclave.
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A year ago, a bomb exploded at the same bus stop, killing a 16-year-old boy and wounding 18.
US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew said: "Abhorrent terrorist attack in Jerusalem this morning. We unequivocally condemn such brutal violence."
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