Eight Injured As Shooter Opens Fire on a Bus in Jerusalem’s Old City

Seven people were wounded after a shooter opened fire on a bus in Jerusalem's Old City early Sunday, Israeli police and medics said, as per an AFP report. Representational image.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

As many as eight people were wounded, two of them critically, after a shooter opened fire on a bus in Jerusalem's Old City on Sunday, 14 August, Israeli police and medics said, as per an AFP report.

The police are still searching for the shooter, who fled after the pre-dawn attack. "Police have cordoned off the scene and are searching for a suspect," police said.

The shooting occurred while the bus was parked in a lot near the Western Wall, which is considered the holiest site for Jews to pray.

Earlier Zaki Heller, a spokesperson for the Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel's emergency medical services, said that six men and one woman were injured in the attack, with all seven "fully conscious."

The two, who are in a serious condition, included a pregnant woman with abdominal injuries and a man with gunshot wounds to the head and neck, according to Israeli hospitals treating them.

The condition of the eighth person is yet to be known.

MDA paramedics said they provided lifesaving treatment to people who sustained gunshot wounds. All victims were reportedly taken to nearby hospitals.

The attack on the bus in Jerusalem comes about a week after a three-day conflict between Israel and militants in the densely populated Palestinian enclave of Gaza.

The Israeli government had stated on Friday, 5 August, that it had struck Gaza, calling it a "special situation," following days of tensions due to the arrest of a Palestinian militant in the occupied West Bank.

A ceasefire agreement between Israel and the militant group known as the the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), took effect on 7 August, in a bid to end three days of violence between the two sides leading to the killing of dozens of Palestinians.

This was the worst fighting in Gaza since the 2021 violence, which saw Hamas and Israel fire hundreds of rockets at each, killing hundreds, mostly Palestinians.