Two Palestinian terrorists who murdered four men and a woman Monday morning in a shooting attack at the Ramot junction in Jerusalem were killed by two Haredi men — one a soldier serving as a platoon commander in the IDF’s Hasmonean Brigade and the other an armed civilian who opened fire with his grandfather’s pistol.
The civilian, a resident of a community near Jerusalem, had recently been granted a firearm license under residency-based criteria. He used a pistol that once belonged to his grandfather, a longtime police volunteer. When the grandfather was no longer able to carry it, he passed it to one of his grandsons, a medic with the United Hatzalah rescue organization who also held a license and regularly responded to terror scenes. That grandson later received a standard-issue weapon from United Hatzalah, as part of its policy of arming volunteers, and gave the heirloom pistol to his brother — the man who used it to kill the attackers at Ramot.
The first moments of the shooting.
After the shooting, the man gave testimony to police. His brother-in-law said: “He was on his way to yeshiva. He emptied the magazine on the terrorists.”
The second responder was an IDF Haredi soldier, a platoon commander in the Hasmonean Brigade, who also fired at the attackers and helped neutralize them.
Following the attack, the IDF dispatched forces from the Duvdevan Unit, a company from the Maglan Unit, and two companies from the 532nd Battalion to the terrorists’ home villages near Ramallah. A military closure was imposed on the area, and crossings around Jerusalem were sealed, halting entry and exit.
Malka Cohen, who survived the attack, said: “I hid under a car. I lay on the ground. I was at the back of the bus. They were waiting for us to get off. I went in the other direction and survived.”
Fadi Dakidik, a paramedic with Magen David Adom, said: “There were horrific sights. It was a difficult morning.”