Five people evacuated in a ‘serious condition’ after shooting at Ramot Junction, paramedic service says.

Five people have been killed in a shooting attack in occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli authorities have said, as the Israeli military’s punishing assault on besieged Gaza rages.

Paramedics said at least 12 other people were injured in the Monday morning attack, with six in “serious condition” with gunshot wounds following the shooting at Ramot Junction, Israel’s paramedic service, Magen David Adom. Several others were “lightly injured by glass” and treated at the scene, Magen David Adom said.

Israeli police described the shooting as a suspected “terror attack”.

Police said two attackers were “neutralised” soon after the shooting began. A security officer and a civilian shot and killed the perpetrators of attack that killed five people in occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli police confirmed.

The police said that perpetrators arrived in a vehicle and opened fire at a bus station.

Israeli forces have closed all checkpoints between occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank following an attack that killed five people in occupied East Jerusalem, sources tell Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, after police said that the perpetrators had come from the occupied West Bank, Israeli Army Radio has reported that Israeli forces imposed a military cordon on four Palestinian villages in the Jerusalem governorate of the territory – Qatana, Biddu, Beit Inan, and Beit Duqu – and is conducting raids there.

The Israeli military said it had reinforced its forces in the wider Jerusalem area and was conducting a wide-ranging search for what it described as “accomplices” of the perpetrators of the shooting.

Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from Amman, Jordan, said, “Israeli authorities are saying the two perpetrators are from an area in the occupied West Bank that is just west of occupied East Jerusalem. They say the two worked in tandem in this attack, that two gunmen boarded a bus – witnesses say one of them was dressed as a ticket inspector – and opened fire.”

“This attack took place near an illegal settlement of Ramot, just north of West Jerusalem, and if you look at where the Green Line is on a map, it actually bleeds into occupied East Jerusalem. These settlements are deemed illegal under international law and are buildings and structures that infringe on the rights of Palestinians and destroy territorial continuity for a future Palestinian state,” she added.

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“Israeli officials are now trying to wrap their heads around how exactly this happened, saying that they haven’t seen something like this happen in years, saying that the last shooting like this in the greater Jerusalem was back in November 2023,” Salhut said.

Doubts attack ordered by Hamas

Meanwhile, Israel Hayom newspaper reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed judges that he would not attend his corruption trial session scheduled for Monday due to the security developments.

Both Netanyahu and Israel’s far-right Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir have visited the scene of the shooting.

The shooting attack was most likely to have originated from the West Bank, rather than from Hamas in Gaza, Israeli political analyst Ori Goldberg said.

Speaking from Tel Aviv, Goldberg told Al Jazeera he “seriously” doubted it had been ordered by Hamas.

If Hamas had carried out the attack, then it would mean Hamas was “trying to step up its resistance to what is beginning to look like a superimposed attempt to end the war”, he said, referring to comments from the United States Donald Trump administration that it is working on a solution to the war in Gaza.(Aljazeera)