The killers’ families are set to receive salaries as part of the Palestinian Authority’s ‘pay-to-slay’ program
Two Palestinian terrorists from the West Bank killed at least 6 people and injured at least 20 others at a bus station in northern Jerusalem on Monday, according to media reports.
The attackers opened fire on commuters at Jerusalem’s Ramot Junction before boarding a bus and shooting passengers, ABC News reported. Emergency crews said the victims include a man and woman in their 50s and three men in their 30s. The sixth victim has not yet been identified, according to Fox News. “Paramedics who responded to the scene said the area was chaotic and covered in broken glass, with people wounded and lying unconscious on the road and a sidewalk near the bus stop,” Fox News reported.
A security officer and an armed civilian shot and neutralized the gunmen at the scene, according to Fox. According to social media accounts and the website Jewish Breaking News, the civilian is a Haredi yeshiva student who received a firearm license just a year ago.
A joint statement from the Israeli police and Israel’s internal security service, Shin Bet, identified the shooters as Muthanna Omar and Muhammad Taha, both from the West Bank, CNN reported. Shin Bet has also arrested an East Jerusalem resident who is suspected of helping the shooters, according to the Times of Israel.
The terrorists’ families are set to receive salaries as part of the Palestinian Authority’s longstanding “pay-to-slay” program, which has provided millions of dollars to the families of killed or imprisoned terrorists. While Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas claimed in February that he would end the program, he told his party later that month that “even if we have [only] one penny left, it is for the prisoners and Martyrs,” according to the Council on Foreign Relations. There is no evidence to suggest the authority ceased its payments to terrorists’ families following Abbas’s order.
“We are grief stricken by the killings and woundings of commuters and students waiting for their bus on a sunny Monday morning in Jerusalem,” Rabbi Moshe Hauer, the executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, said in a statement. “The Palestinian terrorists committing this monstrous act will be richly rewarded by the Palestinian Authority. There will be no investigation, debate, or discussion in the political arena or in the media about the legitimacy of targets, proportionality, and collateral damage.”
“There will be precious little in the way of global condemnation for this deliberate attack on innocent civilians,” Hauer’s statement goes on. “The investigations and condemnations are reserved exclusively for the IDF, the one fighting force in this conflict that—while imperfect—acts to protect its own citizens and minimize civilian harm amongst its opponents.”
The Monday terrorist attack comes as Israel has launched its attack on Gaza City, targeting Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure in the city center and vowing to “intensify” the offensive until the terror group releases all hostages and disarms. Prior to the offensive, the Israel military said it had already taken control of 40 percent of Gaza City, Hamas’s last stronghold.
Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have both released statements praising the terrorist attack, though neither group has claimed responsibility. “Both Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) have been silent for weeks,” the X account @HowidyHamza wrote, yet “both found the time to celebrate a terrorist operation in Jerusalem, where an eight-months-pregnant woman was killed this morning.”
Both Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) have been silent for weeks; even amidst a major displacement campaign taking place in Gaza city, none of them even thought of talking to the residents to direct them on what to do or where to go, but both found the time to… pic.twitter.com/OqwRGcgvPU
— Hamza (@HowidyHamza) September 8, 2025
Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar said that a pregnant woman was among the wounded, CBS News reported.
“We are in a fierce war against terrorism on several fronts: in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, Lebanon, and Iran, which supports them all,” Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the scene, according to a translation by Google Translate. “We are now pursuing and surrounding the murderers from this morning. We will catch everyone who helped them and take even tougher measures.”
אנחנו במלחמה עצימה מול הטרור בכמה חזיתות: בעזה, ביהודה ושומרון, בלבנון ובאיראן שמגבה את כולם.
כעת אנחנו במרדף וכיתור אחרי המרצחים מהבוקר. נשיג את כל מי שסייע בידם וננקוט צעדים קשים עוד יותר.
הפיגועים האלה לא מרפים את ידינו – הם רק מחזקים את הנחישות שלנו להשלים את המשימות: לחסל… pic.twitter.com/pGatTmdVpV
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) September 8, 2025
Israel has faced a series of terrorist attacks since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre triggered a full-scale war. Last October, a gunman opened fire at a bus station in the Israeli city of Beersheba, killing 1 person and injuring 10 others. In February, three buses exploded just south of Tel Aviv. The explosions were caused by makeshift bombs with timers that likely originated from the West Bank, Tel Aviv District police chief Haim Sargarof said at the time.
“These attacks do not weaken us,” Netanyahu said Monday—”they only strengthen our determination to complete the tasks: to eliminate Hamas, to free all the hostages, and to maintain the security of the citizens of Israel.”
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