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Driver Plows Into Group at Jerusalem Train Station, Killing Baby, Police Say Driver Plows Into Group at Jerusalem Train Station, Killing Baby, Police Say
(about 4 hours later)
JERUSALEM — A Palestinian driver plowed his car into a group of people waiting at a light rail station in northern Jerusalem on Wednesday, the police said, killing an Israeli baby and injuring eight other people. The driver was shot and seriously injured by police officers as he tried to flee, according to the police, in an episode that added to the escalating tensions in the city. JERUSALEM — A Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem plowed his car into a group of pedestrians at a light rail station in the northern part of Jerusalem on Wednesday, killing a 3-month-old Israeli baby and injuring eight other people. The police said they were treating the crash as a terrorist attack.
A spokesman for the police, Micky Rosenfeld, said the event was being treated as a suspected terrorist attack, with a strong possibility that the driver had deliberately run people over. Footage from a traffic camera aired on Israeli television showed the car swerving off the main road and driving fast in the direction of the rail station. The driver tried to flee on foot, and was shot by police officers, according to Micky Rosenfeld, a spokesman for the police. The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, later reported that he died of his wounds.
The Maan Palestinian news agency identified the driver as Abd al-Rahman Al-Shaloudy, 20. Mr. Rosenfeld said the driver had previously served time in an Israeli prison. Mr. Rosenfeld said there was a “strong possibility” that the driver had deliberately run people over.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel ordered a reinforcement of security forces in Jerusalem and, in a statement, accused President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority of inciting violence against Jews in Jerusalem. In a speech over the weekend, Mr. Abbas called on Palestinians to defend the Al Aksa Mosque by all means after a series of violent confrontations between Muslim worshipers and the police in the mosque compound, Islam’s third-holiest site. Footage from a security camera showed the car swerving off a main road and speeding across the light-rail tracks toward the station. The footage was broadcast on Israeli television.
Many of the clashes have centered on the visits of Israeli rightists who frequent the compound and are increasingly demanding the right to pray there. Known to Jews as Temple Mount, the compound is considered Judaism’s holiest site and the location of the ancient Jewish temples. The baby who was killed was identified as Chaya Zissel Braun. Her grandfather, Shimshon Halperin, told reporters, “She was a pure girl, with a holy soul, who had done no wrong and was murdered for no reason.”
The car attack came hours after gunshots and an antitank missile fired across the Egyptian-Israeli border wounded two Israeli soldiers in a vehicle, according to the Israeli military. Palestinian news outlets called the crash an accident, and identified the driver as Abd al-Rahman al-Shaloudy, 20 or 22 years old.
Mr. Rosenfeld said the driver had served time in an Israeli prison for security offenses. Palestinian reports said Mr. Shaloudy was released in December 2013 after 16 months in prison.
Mr. Shaloudy was a resident of Silwan, a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood in territory that Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war and later annexed, a step that has not been recognized internationally. An influx of right-wing Jewish settlers who have acquired property in the area in recent years have made the neighborhood a flash point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Mr. Shaloudy was reported to have been the nephew of a leader in the military wing of Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that dominates Gaza, who was killed in 1998.
Mr. Rosenfeld said that intensive police operations were taking place in several areas. A police helicopter hovered above Silwan on Wednesday night.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel ordered a reinforcement of security forces in Jerusalem and issued a statement accusing President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority of inciting violence against Jews in Jerusalem.
In a speech over the weekend, Mr. Abbas called on Palestinians to use all means to defend the Al Aksa Mosque, regarded as Islam’s third-holiest site. His call followed a series of violent confrontations in the mosque compound between Muslim worshipers, protesters and the police.
Many of the recent clashes have centered on visits to the compound by hard-right Israelis who have been increasingly demanding the right to pray there. The mosque is on the Temple Mount, revered by Jews as the location of ancient Jewish temples and the holiest site in Judaism.
Tensions have been running high in Jerusalem since early July, when Jewish extremists murdered a local Palestinian teenager, Muhammad Abu Khdeir. The killing was in retaliation for the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers in the occupied West Bank by Palestinian militants affiliated with Hamas.
Some Palestinians drew a line between Wednesday’s crash and a case a few days ago when a Jewish settler ran over and killed a Palestinian girl, Inas Shawkat, 5, in the West Bank. The settler fled the scene but reported the incident to the Israeli police when he reached the nearest Jewish settlement.
Hours before Wednesday’s crash, gunshots and an antitank missile were fired into Israel from across the Egyptian-Israeli border, wounding two Israeli soldiers in a vehicle, according to the Israeli military.
The attack came from the rugged desert terrain of the Sinai Peninsula, where Islamic militants have been battling Egyptian forces and have occasionally carried out attacks against foreign targets or against Israel.The attack came from the rugged desert terrain of the Sinai Peninsula, where Islamic militants have been battling Egyptian forces and have occasionally carried out attacks against foreign targets or against Israel.
But Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said a preliminary inquiry indicated that the cross-border fire came from drug smugglers operating in the area. Israeli forces returned fire and killed at least three of the assailants, according to the military. But Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said that, based on a preliminary inquiry, drug smugglers appeared to be responsible for the firing, rather than militants. Israeli forces returned fire and killed at least three of the assailants, according to the military.
Colonel Lerner said that the vehicle had come under fire near Ezuz, a small and remote Israeli border community, and that the military had sent extra forces to the area.
The injured troops — a male soldier and a female officer — are from the Carakal Battalion, which patrols Israel’s border with Egypt. They were evacuated by helicopter.
Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1979 that brought decades of quiet to the once-hostile border, with the Sinai serving as a strategic buffer. But in recent years a number of attacks by Islamic militants have punctured the calm and strained the peace between the two countries.
Militants crossed into Israeli territory near the resort town of Eilat in August 2011 and ambushed a bus and private cars, killing eight people. Israeli forces pursuing the attackers fired into Egyptian territory and accidentally killed five Egyptian officers. In protest, enraged Egyptians stormed the Israeli Embassy in Cairo.
The following year, an Israeli soldier and a civilian construction worker were shot dead in separate incidents along the border, and several militants were killed in return fire. Militants have also occasionally fired rockets from Sinai into Eilat and have sabotaged gas pipelines, interrupting supplies of Egyptian natural gas to Israel.
Israel recently completed construction of a 16-foot-tall steel border fence, stretching 150 miles from Eilat on the Gulf of Aqaba north to Gaza. The fence is intended to prevent infiltration by militants and stem the flow of African migrants into Israel.