Two off-duty soldiers and an armed civilian killed the terrorists, according to reports.
The attackers were later identified as brothers Murad Namr, 38, and Ibrahim Namr, 30, from eastern Jerusalem.
According to the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), the pair were Hamas members and had previously been jailed for terror-related activity.
Visiting the scene of the attack, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said the government needed to respond to terror with military force.
“This incident proves yet again that we cannot show weakness, that we have to address Hamas only through war,” said Ben-Gvir.
Minister-without-Portfolio Benny Gantz, a member of the War Cabinet, said that the attack strengthened Israel’s resolve to continue waging war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“This terror attack is further proof of our obligation to continue to fight with strength and determination against murderous terrorism, which threatens our citizens. In Jerusalem, Gaza, in Judea and Samaria, and everywhere,” said Gantz.
Israeli security at the scene of a terror shooting attack at the entrance to Jerusalem. (Photo: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)Flash90
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is also a minister in the Defense Ministry, tweeted in response to the attack: “We are at war on all fronts. The terrible attack in Jerusalem reminds us that our enemies are not only the Nazis in Gaza. We will pursue and destroy them, God willing, everywhere.”
Israel would “not rest until victory is achieved,” he added.
US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew denounced the attack, tweeting: “Abhorrent terrorist attack in Jerusalem this morning. We unequivocally condemn such brutal violence. My thoughts are with the families of the victims and I offer my sincere condolences to all those affected.”
On November 16, Hamas terrorists shot and killed an IDF soldier and wounded five other members of the security forces near the “tunnel road” checkpoint between Gush Etzion and southern Jerusalem.
Three Palestinian gunmen arrived at the crossing by car and opened fire on Israeli forces, who returned fire, killing the terrorists.
The terrorists were part of a Hamas cell and planned to perpetrate a much larger attack in Jerusalem.
The slain soldier was identified as 20-year-old Cpl. Avraham Fetena from Haifa.
Earlier this month, an Israeli-American Border Police officer was killed in a terror attack near the Herod’s Gate entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City. Another officer was moderately wounded.
The slain officer was named as Sgt. Elisheva Rose Ida Lubin, 20, from Kibbutz Sa’ad near the Gaza Strip. She immigrated from Atlanta in the United States in August 2021 and was drafted into the police in March of the following year.
Late last month, an Israeli policeman was seriously wounded in a stabbing attack near the Shivtei Yisrael light rail stop in Jerusalem.
On October 12, two police officers were injured in a terrorist shooting just outside Jerusalem’s Old City.
Thursday’s attack comes amid a ceasefire in the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 invasion of the Jewish state, in which terrorists killed 1,200 people, wounded thousands more and took some 240 captives to the Gaza Strip.
