Several Israelis wounded in attack on Jerusalem bus

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Israeli police are on the hunt for a gunman after a shooting attack on a bus in Jerusalem’s Old City wounded at least eight people.

A gunman has opened fire at a bus near Jerusalem’s Old City, wounding at least eight people, two of them critically, according to Israeli police.

The attack took place in the early hours of Sunday, as the bus carrying Israeli settlers waited in a parking lot near the Western Wall, a holy prayer site for Jews.

Israeli police said forces were dispatched to the scene to begin investigations.

“The police were informed of a shooting of a bus … Police have cordoned off the scene and are searching for a suspect who fled,” the police said.

Israeli forces have pushed into the nearby Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan pursuing the suspected attacker.

Al Jazeera’s Natasha Ghoneim, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, said Israeli forces have been raiding houses in the area and that there were reports of a second shooting at a parking lot in the area.

The attacks in Jerusalem followed a tense week between Israel and Palestinian fighters in Gaza and the West Bank.

Last week, Israeli jets unleashed an offensive in the Gaza Strip targeting the Palestinian armed group Islamic Jihad and setting off three days of fighting.

Forty-nine Palestinians, including 17 children, were killed, and several hundred were wounded in Israeli bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip.

Two Islamic Jihad commanders were also killed. The group responded by firing hundreds of rockets at Israel, but most of them were intercepted.

No Israeli was killed or seriously injured.

The fighting ended with an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire.

The Hamas group, which governs Gaza, stayed on the sidelines.