The Israel police reported Thursday that two gunmen shot and killed three civilians and injured 16 at a bus stop in Jerusalem.
Chief Superintendent and Head of Communication Mirit Ben Mayor provided further information, stating that the gunmen approached the bus stop in a vehicle, got out and opened fire on people waiting for a bus. While the assailants were running back to their car to get more bullets, nearby Israeli Defense Force (IDF) officers stopped the gunmen.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared a statement on the attack confirming Hamas was responsible, saying, “We will continue this war until we achieve the three goals: Freeing all of our hostages, completely eliminating Hamas and ensuring that no threat like this will ever come from Gaza again.”
Thursday also brought reports from the IDF that an “aerial target” from Lebanon was neutralized after it entered northern Israel.
The most recent update from the IDF reports Hamas is holding 159 hostages. This update follows last week’s agreement to a temporary ceasefire in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Hamas released 13 Israeli hostages in exchange for 39 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday. Since then, three more rounds of hostages have been released by Hamas. On Tuesday, the parties agreed to continue the humanitarian pause for two more days amidst further mediation talks, and have since agreed to extend the pause by one additional day, until Friday. Netanyahu stated that because specific women and children hostages were freed, the pause would continue.
Recently, the IDF released updates via their X (formerly Twitter) page reminding people to not go into Northern Gaza during the ceasefire because the territory is still a “war zone,” even amidst the pause. These updates come as there have been calls from Amnesty International to investigate Israel for war crimes for its recent bombings in Gaza, specifically alleging Israel bombed targets with no “military objective.”