Jerusalem - A Palestinian bulldozer driver went on a rampage
along one of West Jerusalem's main traffic thoroughfares Wednesday,
leaving a trail of destruction as he killed at least three Israelis
and injured 40, before being shot dead by police.
Witnesses and police said the driver had left a nearby
construction site, then drove against traffic onto Jerusalem's
central Yaffa street, where he began ploughing into and smashing the
mechanical shovel into passing vehicles.
He hit about eight cars, a cab and two buses, completely crushing
at least two of the private cars and pushing over one of the
passenger buses, while the second bus managed to swerve out of the
tractor's path, escaping with only minor damage.
Several policemen jumped onto the heavy-duty Caterpillar and
struggled with the driver, but they initially failed to overpower
him. A policeman and an armed civilian passing by opened fire,
killing him.
By that time, however, he had already worked through more than 500
metres of the central Jerusalem street. In an initial response,
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office called it a 'murderous
terrorist attack.'
Jerusalem police chief Ilan Franko said the driver was a
Palestinian from East Jerusalem with a criminal record.
One witness said he saw a woman trapped in her vehicle with no
chance of escaping as the driver repeatedly rammed the shovel into
her windshield. By the time the witness had managed to reach her car
she was gasping her last breaths.
But a fire department official said a baby was found alive outside
the car, adding the toddler had either been tossed out by the impact
of the collision, or the mother must have pushed him out while she
was under attack in order to save him.
The other two fatalities were another woman and a man.
Some 35 passengers had been on the Number 13 city bus which was
overturned. The bus driver and several of his passengers were among
the injured. The bus, lying on its side, was completely smashed on
the inside, with personal belongings, including groceries, newspapers
and a stroller, lying scattered around, a Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa
reporter at the scene said.
Eli Mizrahi, the policeman who fired the fatal shots, told
reporters the driver was 'in a frenzy,' barrelling down the road, his
hands tight on the steering wheel. The policeman said he had climbed
onto the bulldozer and fired two shots, after a civilian who was
carrying a gun had fired at the Palestinian as well.
A shadowy group calling itself the Imad Mughniyah Brigades of
Free Galilee claimed responsibility in phonecalls to local
Palestinian news agencies. The same group however has made several
false claims of responsibility in the past.
Mughniyah, a senior leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah, was
assassinated in Damascus in February, and the radical Shiite movement
had blamed Israel and vowed revenge.
Police described the perpetrator as a 'lone' attacker, who had
been working on a housing construction site around the corner of the
scene and was married with children.
A large Israeli police force later entered Sur Baher, an East
Jerusalem neighbourhood on the city's southern outskirts, and began
searching the house of a 30-year-old Palestinian, Hussam Dwayat,
identified as the perpetrator, local residents told dpa.
The last Palestinian attack in Jerusalem took place on March 6,
when another East Jerusalem resident burst into a religious school
or yeshiva in West Jerusalem, opened fire and killed eight students,
ending four years of calm in the city.
Jerusalem had in the earlier years of the current Palestinian
Intifada uprising against Israel been the site of numerous suicide
bombings and shooting sprees.
But the Intifada had during the last few years lost its intensity,
especially as regards attacks from the West Bank, where the Ramallah-
based administration of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
has also over the past months revived peace negotiations with Israel.
The uprising has instead continued mainly in the form of near-
daily rocket and mortar attacks from the Gaza Strip, where a shaky
truce took hold only two weeks ago.
Israel has credited its controversial security barrier as the main
cause for the reduction in attacks launched from the West Bank. But
Wednesday's attack and the yeshiva shooting in March, both committed
by Palestinians from East Jerusalem, have sparked concern of a new
trend.
Israel's security barrier snakes around East Jerusalem and cuts it
off from the rest of the West Bank, because building the wall on the
border between the eastern and western sections would have meant a
de-facto division of the city.
As a result, Israel has no control over the entry of East Jeruslam
residents into the Jewish, eastern section of the city.
Some Israeli lawmakers have demanded the government strip East
Jerusalem residents who carry out attacks off their Israeli
citizenship and their social security benefits.
Israeli Trade and Industry Minister Eli Yishai, of the ultra-
Orthodox Shas party, also demanded that if it became clear
Wednesday's attacker had Israeli citizenship, Israel should change
the law to enable it to demolish his family's East Jerusalem home.
marge, USAJul 2nd, 2008 - 14:27:46
As long as Israel continues its land stealing, murder, terrorism, war crimes, and human rights violations of the Palestinian people, there will be no peace and violent acts like this will continue. No walls or barriers will stop the violence. Only Israel can stop the violence by giving the Palestinians their land back and treating them justly.
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