“Last night, a terrorist shot at a bus in Jerusalem wounding 8 people, including a pregnant 30-year-old woman and a 60-year-old man who are in critical care. We pray for their full recovery,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced.
According to news reports, the baby was delivered by emergency C-section while the mother is in “serious but stable condition – in a shooting attack targeting a bus near King David’s Tomb near the Western Wall on Saturday night.”
According to the report, four of the injured belonged to the same family and are part of the hasidic Satmar sect and were visiting Israel from Williamsburg, New York.
A spokesperson for the US Embassy in Jerusalem confirmed that US citizens were among the victims of the terrorist attack, but had no further comment on the matter.
Yosef Chaim HaCohen, a paramedic with United Hatzalah who lives near the scene, stated, “I parked the car near the house and heard gunshots and screams. The neighbors ran to me and shouted ‘terror attack.’”
MDA paramedic Shimi Grossman said: “This was a bus that left the Western Wall with worshipers heading toward the city. According to a passerby, a terrorist began to shoot indiscriminately toward the bus. When I arrived there was a great commotion, people ran in panic, MDA teams treated and evacuated a 30-year-old man and a 45-year-old man in serious condition, a 30-year-old woman in serious condition, a young man about 20 years old in moderate condition and 4 injured in mild condition.”
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum praised the attack as a courageous act of resistance
The Islamic terrorist, allegedly a man named Amir Sidawi, has been arrested.
Those wounded in the attack included a 35-year-old pregnant woman who was shot while sitting in a nearby car, Hebrew media reported. Her abdomenal injury was described by doctors as “complex” and her life was said to be in danger. Shaare Zedek hospital said she had undergone an emergency delivery and that the newborn was in serious but stable condition.
The family’s father was said to be in serious condition, sedated and on a respirator, while the mother was in moderate condition.
“It was a very difficult scene, the blood-soaked tzitzit and abandoned baby stroller will remain in my memory for many years,” said Moshe Levy from the United Hatzalah emergency organization, referring to knotted ritual fringes worn by observant Jews.
The alleged perpetrator had reportedly waited for the bus’s arrival and fired the shots while passengers were boarding, then fled on foot to Silwan.
“The bus was full, jam-packed. I stopped at a bus stop at King David’s Tomb and then I heard gunfire, people started yelling, people were hurt inside the bus,” the bus driver, Daniel Kanievsky, said.
The driver said he had wanted to drive away but couldn’t because passengers were helping a wheelchair-bound woman board the bus, with the lowered ramp blocking the door from closing.
So another heroic and “courageous” act of Islamic terrorism.
