(JNS) Terrorists shot and wounded six Israelis near the “tunnel road” checkpoint between Gush Etzion and Jerusalem on Thursday morning.

Three Palestinian gunmen arrived at the crossing by car and opened fire on Israeli forces, who responded by shooting and killing the terrorists, authorities said.

Police said all of the wounded were members of the security forces.

The terrorists were reportedly part of a Hamas cell and planned to perpetrate a much larger attack in Jerusalem.

Magen David Adom emergency medical personnel treated four of the victims at the scene, including a man in his 20s in critical condition, before evacuating them to the hospital. A woman in her early 20s and a man in his 30s were in moderate condition and another young man was lightly wounded.

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Police and security personnel at the scene of a shooting attack at "HaMinharot" checkpoint, near Jerusalem, leaving five people injured, one of them in critical condition. November 16, 2023. (Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The other two victims were in light-to-moderate condition.

Shaare Zedek and Hadassah Ein Kerem hospitals each said they were treating three victims for gunshot wounds.

Three additional people were treated for severe anxiety and stress, according to MDA.

The security forces were sweeping the area for any additional suspects.

Police ruled out the possibility that an explosive device was left at the scene.

The car used by the terrorists had false license plates, police said.

Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai said that weapons seized from a car belonging to terrorists indicated that they “planned to carry out a massacre."

Police found two M16 rifles, two handguns, hundreds of bullets in bulk along with 10 cartridges, as well as two axes and clothing resembling an Israeli army uniform.

“The terrorists who were killed were caught with weapons, axes, a large amount of ammunition and dates for a long stay. They planned to carry out a massacre. All forces acted resolutely and prevented a much larger attack,” Shabtai said.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Thursday that the attack proves the failure of Jerusalem's defense strategy in the West Bank.

"We have to deal with Hamas in Judea and Samaria as well as the Palestinian Authority, which has similar views as Hamas and whose leaders identified with the [Oct. 7] massacre, exactly how we are addressing Gaza," he added.

"Trusting Holocaust denier [and P.A. chief] Mahmoud Abbas is anarchy. Containment will explode in our faces like in Gaza. Now is the time to act," said Ben-Gvir.

Last week, an Israeli-American Border Police officer was killed in a terror attack near the Herod’s Gate entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City. Another officer was moderately wounded.

The slain officer was named as Sgt. Elisheva Rose Ida Lubin, 20, from Kibbutz Sa’ad near the Gaza Strip. She immigrated from Atlanta in the United States in August 2021 and was drafted into the police in March of the following year.

The terrorist was killed. He was identified as a 16-year-old resident of the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya.

Late last month, an Israeli policeman was seriously wounded in a stabbing attack near the Shivtei Yisrael light rail stop in Jerusalem.

On Oct. 12, two police officers were injured in a terrorist shooting just outside Jerusalem’s Old City.