At least six people have been killed during a shootout in the occupied East Jerusalem, amid ongoing  Israeli military assault in Gaza, which rages alongside an accelerated violent crackdown by the army and settlers in the occupied West Bank.

During the attack, 12 people were injured, and six individuals are in critical condition after the shootout on Monday at the Ramot Junction, Al Jazeera confirmed.

Israeli police described the shooting as a suspected “terror attack”.

Police disclosed that a security officer and a civilian shot and killed the perpetrators soon after the shooting began, stating that the perpetrators arrived in a vehicle and opened fire at a bus station.

Israeli forces closed all checkpoints between East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank after the attack, sources told Al Jazeera.

Following police claims that the perpetrators are from the occupied West Bank, Israeli Army Radio stated that Israeli forces established a military blockade around four villages in the Jerusalem governorate in Qatana, Biddu, Beit Inan, and Beit Duqu, conducting raids there.

Speaking at the Aida refugee camp in the West Bank, Leila Warah stated that the Palestinians are “very much on edge, waiting to see what is going to happen”.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israeli forces are pursuing the villages where the attackers hailed from, in what was a now standard Israeli response to such attacks,” Warah disclosed.

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The Israeli military said it had reinforced its forces in the wider Jerusalem area and was conducting a wide-ranging search for what it described as “accomplices” in the shooting.

Palestinians in the West Bank are preparing themselves to face collective punishment from Israel in retaliation for the attack, a Palestinian journalist said.

Reacting to the shooting, the Palestinian Authority has reiterated its firm position of rejecting and condemning any targeting of Palestinian and Israeli civilians.
Its presidential office said in a statement from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank that the PA denounces “all forms of violence and terrorism regardless of their source”.

Neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Islamic Jihad has claimed responsibility for the shooting, but have expressed “congratulations” for the attack.

Hamas said in a statement that the shooting was “a natural response to the crimes of the occupation and the genocide it wages against our people.”

Further stating that it sends a clear message that Israel’s plans to “occupy and destroy Gaza City and desecrate Al-Aqsa Mosque will not pass without punishment”.

The group said Israel’s aggression against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank “will not weaken the determination of our people and their resistance” and called for more attacks in the occupied territory.