Americans injured in suspected Palestinian gun attack

Alleged shooter turned in himself and weapon hours after fleeing, according to police official

JERUSALEM — Eight people were injured, among them U.S. citizens, in a suspected Palestinian gun attack on a bus near Jerusalem’s Western Wall in the Old City early Sunday, Israeli police and medics said.

The alleged shooter turned in himself and his weapon hours after fleeing the scene and setting off an extensive manhunt, according to Israeli Police Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai.

Tom Nides, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, said he was “deeply saddened to confirm that Americans were injured in this attack.”

“I’ve spoken with the families and will keep them in my prayers,” he said in a statement on Twitter.

Both Nides and the U.S. Office of Palestinian Affairs said in statements early Sunday they strongly condemned what they described as a “terrorist attack.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem declined to provide further details about the victims, citing privacy concerns. They spoke on the condition of anonymity in accordance with embassy protocol.

The shooting comes less than a week after Israel and militants in the Gaza Strip reached a tentative truce to end several days of fighting that killed at least 47 Palestinians.

On Wednesday, Israeli security forces using shoulder-launched missiles killed three suspected Palestinian militants in the crowded West Bank city of Nablus.

Sunday’s attack in Jerusalem happened about 1:30 a.m. local time in two locations near the entrance to the Western Wall, one of Judaism’s holiest sites.

A gunman opened fire on a bus and vehicles by a parking lot, and then ran into the adjacent Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan, according to Israeli police.

Israel’s emergency medical service said it treated people with gunshot wounds on the scene and that seven were hospitalized.

Two of the injured were in critical condition, among them a pregnant woman who was shot in her abdomen and underwent emergency labor, Israeli media reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid condemned the attack Sunday and warned that “all those who seek our harm should know that they will pay a price for any harm to our civilians.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she was working with the State Department amid reports that state residents were among the injured.

“I am horrified by the terror attack in Jerusalem, and by the news that a family of New Yorkers has been impacted,” she tweeted.

No Palestinian group took responsibility for the attack, and Israeli police did not immediately release further details about the alleged shooter.

A spokesperson for Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza, praised the “heroic operation” against the “arrogance of the occupation’s soldiers and extremist settlers.”

Violence in Israel had subsided somewhat since the spring, when at least 19 people in several cities were killed in a spate of Palestinian attacks with guns, knives and a vehicle. Since then, Israeli forces have conducted near-nightly raids on West Bank communities and killed dozens of Palestinians.