Terrorists Kill Six in Jerusalem

Two gunmen killed six people and injured at least 14 at a bus stop in northern Jerusalem today. A security officer and an armed civilian returned fire and killed the two assailants.

• The two murderers were Palestinians from the West Bank.
• This is the first deadly mass shooting in Israel proper since October 2024.

The attack came after Hamas claimed it was ready to negotiate a new ceasefire with Israel and the United States. Sources told Axios that U.S. diplomat Steve Witkoff sent a new proposal for a ceasefire deal to Hamas last week.

This latest attack, combined with countries threatening to recognize a Palestinian state, means Israel is unlikely to agree to a deal.

A painful and difficult morning. Innocent civilians, women, men and children were brutally murdered and wounded in cold blood on a bus in Jerusalem by vile and evil terrorists. In the face of this barbarity, we saw extraordinary acts of heroism which prevented even further loss of innocent lives. This shocking attack reminds us once again that we are fighting absolute evil. The world must understand what we are up against, and that terror will never defeat us. My heart goes out to the bereaved families, and I pray for the full and swift recovery of the injured.
—Isaac Herzog, president of Israel

What happens next? Bible prophecy says that tensions surrounding Jerusalem will increase and eventually affect the entire world. Zechariah 14:1-2 prophesy that in the end time, before a coming worldwide calamity, “half of the city [Jerusalem] shall go forth into captivity.”

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry writes in his free booklet Jerusalem in Prophecy:

Today the Arabs live in roughly one half of Jerusalem. They just don’t control it—yet. When such an attack occurs, the Jews couldn’t effectively drop bombs, especially nuclear bombs, on one half of their own city.

Looking at the ongoing violence in Jerusalem today—the absolute inability of the involved parties to solve things by peaceful means—we can easily see how one half of Jerusalem shall be taken captive in the very near future. The present violence is an embryo that is about to explode into much greater violence. That is the critical event prophesied in Zechariah 14:2.