Following Hamas’s brutal attack on Jerusalem residents, the Israeli-Hamas ceasefire has finally broken. Two terrorists and at least three civilians were killed in the shooting incident. Taking responsibility, Hamas has lauded the martyrs of the shootings.
As Israelis waited at a bus stop on the outskirts of Jerusalem at about 7:40 am local time on November 30, a car pulled over; two Palestinians stepped out of the vehicle and began firing a handgun and an M16 rifle. A religious court judge, a 24-year-old teacher who was pregnant at the time of her death, and another person were all murdered. There were five more casualties.
An armed civilian and two returning soldiers from leave opened fire, killing both terrorists, preventing the death toll from becoming significantly higher. For whatever reason, the troops mistakenly thought the armed civilian was a third terrorist and opened fire on him. He passed away while in the hospital.
On the very same day, Hamas lauded the attackers and referred to them as “jihad-waging martyrs,” claiming responsibility for the attack. Two brothers, Ibrahim and Murand Nemer, were responsible for the crime. Both had ties to Hamas and had served prison terms for terrorist activities, according to Israeli security sources. They both lived in East Jerusalem, which is home to the majority Palestinian population. Weizmann Boulevard bus stops have been targeted in the past, including the one where the murders took place. A terrorist device went off at the bus station on November 23, 2022, hurting sixteen people and killing two.
Already dwindling expectations for an extension of the ceasefire were severely undermined by the shooting and Hamas’s reneging on some of the negotiated hostage releases. Subsequently, cities in southern Israel were targeted by a missile attack at 5:00 am on December 1 by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Within forty minutes, Israeli attack jets had taken to the air and were en route to their Gaza targets.
