The deadly attack on Monday morning at a busy bus stop is a stark reminder of the unabated terrorist threat.
Reports indicated that two terrorists had entered Jerusalem with weapons. They then traveled to a busy area near Ramot and opened fire on a No. 62 bus.
Ramot is a large Jerusalem neighborhood that sprawls across a valley from a sizable interchange where the Tel Aviv–Jerusalem Highway, Begin Road, and Route 443 converge.
The attack illustrates how Jerusalem continues to sit on the frontline of terrorist threats that emanate from the West Bank.
In the wake of the attack, the IDF encircled several areas on the outskirts of Ramallah, a Palestinian city north of Jerusalem. It serves as the administrative capital for the Palestinian Authority.
There have long been clashes and tensions in the areas between Ramallah and Jerusalem, including near Kalandiya junction, which divides the two cities. The security checkpoint there is near the Kalandiya refugee camp, a warren of small streets and homes that is awash in illegal weapons.
An image from the scene of the terrorist attack showed that at least one of the perpetrators had used a Carlo-style submachine gun. These guns are often manufactured or enhanced in workshops in the West Bank. They used to routinely be the preferred weapons of terrorists from villages in the West Bank.
The Carlo-style gun
In recent years, however, terrorists have not had to use these types of guns because they had access to smuggled weapons, such as the M4 carbine-style, military-grade rifles.
The flow of firearms to the West Bank in the last five years has fueled a massive wave of terrorism. Nevertheless, in the previous year, much of that threat was eliminated, primarily in the northern part of the West Bank.
The decision to resort to the Carlo-style gun – which is often considered to be a crude do-it-yourself type of weapon in terms of how it looks and is made – may indicate that the terrorists have less access to sophisticated guns.
That being said, this terrorist attack was the deadliest one in years in Jerusalem, and it illustrates that these types of firearms are still a significant threat.
The decision by the terrorists to target Jerusalem is symbolic. The enemy is striking at the beating heart of Israel’s capital city. Israeli politicians praised the quick reaction of civilians and soldiers who confronted the terrorists.
Reports said the soldier who killed them was from the new haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Hasmonean Brigade. The terrorists wanted to harm Israel’s capital, but they came face-to-face with the solidarity and unity of Israel that exists in the wake of the October 7 massacre.
JERUSALEM HAS long suffered from terrorist attacks. The last major one was a similar shooting attack at a busy bus stop near the entrance to the city. That attack took place on November 30, 2023, and came six weeks after the October 7 massacre.
A traumatized nation was then plunged into an additional trauma by that attack. It unfolded at the busy bus stop at Givat Shaul junction, which is a few minutes’ walk away from the Chords Bridge that frames the city’s entrance.
The long winding highway that enters Jerusalem snakes through the hills, passing Har Hamenuhot Cemetery, and arrives at this junction. It was there that the terrorists, both armed, killed three people.
An armed Israeli civilian, Yuval Castleman, confronted the attackers. Tragically, he was then killed by friendly fire, when a reservist soldier mistook Castleman for a terrorist. That soldier was later indicted for killing Castleman.
Video footage of the incident depicted Castleman laying down his handgun and putting his hands up, attempting to show that he was not a threat. But he was killed nevertheless.
The tragedy of the November 30, 2023, attack was compounded by the killing of Castleman. Since this took place in the wake of the October 7 massacre, it was caught up in the overall trauma and tragedy of those early months of the war.
Jerusalem has suffered other attacks. In November 2022, there were bombing attacks at bus stops in Jerusalem. One of them targeted the same bus stop that was attacked in November 2023. A second attack also targeted an intersection near Ramot.
Is it a coincidence that so many attacks target these very same areas, or is this due to the ease of access these bus stops have for those entering Jerusalem?
Other dangers have terrorized the city. There was a series of stabbing attacks in 2015-2016, many of them carried out by teenage Palestinians. There was also a bus bombing carried out near Talpiot in April 2016. The perpetrator was from a refugee camp in Bethlehem.
In 2008, a terrorist entered Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood and killed eight students. During that same year, there was also a series of attacks involving terrorists driving bulldozers or backhoes. The terrorists used their construction equipment opportunistically to target their victims.
In 2014, two Palestinian terrorists, using a gun and a knife, attacked Kehillat Bnei Torah Synagogue in the Har Nof neighborhood. They murdered four rabbis and Sgt. Zidan Seif, a Druze police officer.
Terrorist attacks have threatened all of Jerusalem over the last quarter-century, including car rammings, stabbings, and bus bombings.
During the Second Intifada, the city was terrorized for years by bombings. Restaurants had security guards, and every bus stop and garbage bin was constantly searched for bombs.
Moreover, roads were closed so that bomb disposal units using robots could check suspicious packages.
The threat has changed over the years, with bombs, knives, bulldozers, and homemade guns. It has all been used against Jerusalem.
Despite it all, Jerusalemites have soldiered on with the resilience that has become a norm in Israel.