Palestinian gunmen, 'terrorists' responsible for killing 6 at Jerusalem bus stop: Israeli officials

Palestinians shot at a Jerusalem bus stop on Monday, killing six people and injuring 12 others, according to a top Israeli official.

Police said that an Israeli soldier and civilian who were at the scene shot and killed the attackers, the Associated Press reports.

The shooting occurred at a major intersection at the northern entrance to Jerusalem, on a road that leads to Jewish settlements located in east Jerusalem.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar identified the attackers as Palestinian, amid Israel's roughly two-year long war with Palestinian-backed Hamas in Gaza. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived at the scene two hours after the shooting, and said that Israel is “fighting a war on multiple fronts,” including Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel. He was supposed to be in court on Monday for his ongoing corruption trial, which was delayed by the security situation.

Netanyahu praised the soldier who killed the attacker, who was from a newly-formed unit for ultra-Orthodox Jewish soldiers.

Following the attack, hundreds of security forces arrived at the scene to search for additional attackers or explosives that may have been planted around the area. 

The Israel Defense Forces said it was encircling Palestinian villages on the outskirts of the nearby West Bank city of Ramallah as it increases defense in response to the attack.

Hamas praised the attack without claiming responsibility, calling it a “natural response to the occupation’s crimes against our people.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said in a social media post: "Innocent civilians, women, men, and children were brutally murdered and wounded in cold blood on a bus in Jerusalem by vile and evil terrorists."

Netanyahu also said: "We are pursuing and encircling the villages from which the terrorists came. ... We are at war –a full-scale war against terror on multiple fronts," according to CBS News.