5 Wounded in Latest Israel Shooting

Gunfire erupts at bus station
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 18, 2015 2:25 PM CDT
5 Wounded in Latest Israel Shooting
Israeli policemen run looking for a possible suspect in Jerusalem, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2015.   (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic)

Two Arab attackers opened fire in a bus station in southern Israel on Sunday, wounding five people, one critically, in one of the boldest attacks yet of a monthlong wave of violence. The attack came as Israel further tightened security around the country, highlighted by the construction of a barrier separating Jewish and Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem. In a bid to halt the fighting, John Kerry said in Paris he would meet the Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the coming days. Israel has deployed thousands of police, backed up by troops, to maintain order following a spate of attacks, mostly stabbings, by Palestinian assailants. Those measures have so far failed to stop the violence.

In Sunday night's attack, police said the two assailants entered the central bus station in the southern city of Beersheba and began shooting and stabbing people. They said four police officers were lightly wounded and a civilian was in critical condition. One of the attackers was shot and killed, while the second was shot and wounded. Details on his condition were not immediately known. Israeli media showed footage of a blood-streaked floor and rows of ambulances outside the bus station. The attack was one of the most serious incidents amid near-daily bouts of violence that has hit Israel and the Palestinian territories over the past month. After the attack, a crowd of Israelis gathered outside the bus station and chanted "death to Arabs," a sign of rising tensions over the violence. (More Israel and Palestinians stories.)

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