Jerusalem: A Palestinian slammed his car into pedestrians in Jerusalem yesterday, killing a border policeman and wounding nine other people in the second such attack in recent weeks. The rampage followed violent clashes at the flashpoint Al Aqsa mosque compound earlier in the day involving police and stone-throwers.
Police described the car incident, which took place on the seam line between west Jerusalem and the city’s annexed Arab east, as a “hit and run terror attack.”
The driver, whom police identified as a Palestinian from Shuafat refugee camp in east Jerusalem, hit two groups of pedestrians before getting out of the vehicle and attacking passers-by with an iron bar. He was then shot dead by police out on patrol in the area.
The attack mirrored an incident on the same road on October 23 when a Palestinian rammed his car into a group of pedestrians, killing a young woman and a baby.
Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said the driver had first struck a group of policemen yesterday who were crossing the road near border police headquarters, before continuing south and hitting a group of pedestrians waiting at the Shimon HaTsadik light rail station.
After the car came to a halt, the driver, who had sustained injuries during his rampage, “got out of the vehicle and started to hit people with an iron bar,” she said. Emergency services spokesman Zaki Heller said two of the wounded were in very serious conditions. Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat urged the government to act with a firm hand against anyone seeking to terrorise the city through “terror or rioting”.
He was referring to persistent unrest which has gripped the city’s east for the past four months. “The only answer is to get the city back to normal and continue our daily lives because that sends a message to these terrorists: We are here and we will not leave,” he said.
The attack was hailed by the Islamist Hamas movement, which described the attacker, 38-year-old Ibrahim Al Akari, as a “hero” whose actions were a “natural response” to Israel’s actions at the Al Aqsa compound. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, accusing him of encouraging such attacks by sending condolences to the family of a Palestinian who was shot dead by police last week over the attempted assassination of a rightwing Jewish activist.
“The hit-and-run attack in Jerusalem is a direct consequence of Abu Mazen’s (Abbas’s) incitement and that of his partners in Hamas. We are in an ongoing battle for Jerusalem, which I have no doubt we shall win,” he said. Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch praised the actions of the policeman who shot the driver.
“A terrorist who harms civilians should be killed,” he said in remarks broadcast on television and radio, saying he would recommend that anyone behind such attacks should have his home “destroyed.”
Shortly after the attack, clashes broke out in both Shuafat refugee camp and Issawiya, also in east Jerusalem. The city had been on edge since the morning following heavy clashes between police and stone-throwers at the Al Aqsa mosque compound ahead of a visit by a group of Jewish extremists.AFP
