Eduardo González
The Spanish government on Monday “strongly” condemned the terrorist attack in East Jerusalem, which this morning left at least five dead, one of them a Spanish national, and a dozen injured.
“The government wishes to express its solidarity and its most sincere condolences to the families of the victims, especially to the murdered Spanish citizen, and to express its hope that the injured recover as soon as possible,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in a press release. “Spain reiterates its commitment to peace in the Middle East and its firm condemnation of terrorism,” it added.
The attack took place in the northern neighborhood of Ramot when two gunmen, who have since been neutralized, opened fire on a bus at an access intersection into the city. Among the dead was Yaakov Pinto, a 25-year-old Spaniard from Melilla who was living in Israel. Pinto, who had just married, died at the scene along with two other young men in their 30s.
The attack has been claimed by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), which asserted that this “heroic operation” committed by “two Palestinian resistance fighters” is “a natural response to the crimes of the occupation and the war of extermination it is waging against our people.”
For its part, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE), the only institution that officially represents Spanish Jews, has expressed its “deep sorrow” for the murder of the young Spaniard Yacob Pinto in the attack perpetrated this morning in Jerusalem, “in which five other people were also killed and a dozen were injured.”
The FCJE has declared an official mourning period in memory of Yacob Pinto and has expressed its condolences to his family, to the Israeli community of Melilla of which he was a part, as well as its solidarity with Israeli society, which is marked by terrorism. “The last time the Spanish Jewish community mourned was after the murder of Spaniards Iván Yllarramendi and Maya Villalobo, killed in the massacre of October 7, 2023,” it concluded.
