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Driver rams into train platform in east Jerusalem Policeman killed as Palestinian driver ploughs into pedestrians in Jerusalem
(about 2 hours later)
A Palestinian man rammed his car into a crowded train platform in east Jerusalem on Wednesday and then attacked people with an iron bar, killing one person and injuring 13 before being shot dead by police. An Israeli policeman was killed and 13 people wounded – two critically – after a Palestinian driver ploughed his van into pedestrians on a main street in Jerusalem in what security officials immediately described as a “hit and run terror attack”.
It was the second such attack in the past two weeks, and deepened already heightened tensions in the city. Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli police had dispersed dozens of Palestinians who threw rocks and firecrackers near a contested holy site in Jerusalem’s Old City. The driver, identified as 38-year-old Ibrahim al-Akri, was shot and killed by police during the incident after he left his vehicle and reportedly began attacking passers-by with a metal bar.
Police said the motorist slammed his car into the train platform first, backed out and proceeded to drive away, hitting several cars along the way. He then got out of the car and attacked a group of civilians and police officers on the side of the road with a metal bar before he was shot and killed. The attack, claimed as a “glorious operation” by the militant Islamist group Hamas, is the second fatal incident of its kind in two weeks involving a car being driven into pedestrians in the city.
Israeli police said one person was killed and about a dozen people were injured in the incident, which they described as a terror attack. Police and witnesses said Akri first drove his white van into three border policemen crossing the road that divides the Palestinian neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah from the ultra-orthodox Jewish area of Mea Shearim, and then continued several hundred metres to strike several people at a light railway stop.
Police said the 38-year-old Palestinian, identified as Ibrahim al-Akri, had recently been released from prison after serving time for security offences. “A border policeman, taking the initiative, drew his weapon and eliminated the terrorist,” Nir Barkat, the mayor of Jerusalem, told reporters at the scene.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility by any Palestinian organisation, but the Islamic militant group Hamas welcomed the attack. A Facebook page that appeared to belong to Akri included praise for the shooting last week of an Israeli activist who advocates lifting a de facto Israeli ban on Jewish prayer at a religious site in the Old City revered by Jews and Muslims. The al-Aqsa compound, or Temple Mount, has become a central point in the escalating violence in the city in recent months. The compound houses Islam’s third holiest site, but is also a sacred spot for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount because it once housed two Jewish temples.
“We praise this heroic operation,” said Hamas official Fawzi Barhoum. “We call for more such … operations.” Israeli police had earlier on Wednesday dispersed dozens of masked Palestinians who threw rocks and firecrackers near the al-Aqsa compound before a visit by about 100 Jewish activists who planned to hold a prayer vigil.
Israel’s minister of public security, Yitzhak Ahronovich, said civilians and police officers were among the wounded. Video quickly emerged of the latest attack, including graphic footage from the light rail stop where the van hit the second group of people. It showed two people who were injured by a speeding white van that continued driving out of camera.
The attack was almost identical to one two weeks ago that killed two people, a baby girl and a young woman from Ecuador, at a train platform near the scene of Wednesday’s attack. A second video showed the driver on foot being pursued by a police car at a nearby junction, darting in different directions before being approached by several figures and then falling as he was shot.
Palestinian protesters and Israeli police have been clashing almost daily in east Jerusalem in recent months. Israel captured east Jerusalem, with its sites sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians, from Jordan in the 1967 war. Palestinians demand the territory for their future capital. The fate of the area is an emotional issue for Jews and Muslims and its future lies at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the immediate aftermath of the incident, the body of the driver was still visible lying across the tracks of the Jerusalem light railway, a thin trail of blood on the pavement.
Wednesday’s car attack came shortly after clashes in the Old City, where Palestinians threw rocks and firecrackers at police to protest against a planned visit to a key holy site by Israeli supporters of a rightwing activist who was shot by a Palestinian gunman last week. Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said Akri was a member of the group and that his brother was in exile in Turkey after being released in a 2011 prisoner swap.
The Israelis had planned on commemorating a week since a Palestinian shot and wounded American-Israeli activist Yehuda Glick, who has campaigned for more Jewish access to the location, which is revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. Palestinians view such visits as a provocation and often respond violently. Hamas official Fawzi Barhoum praised the “glorious operation” and called for more such attacks.
Several police officers were hurt in the clashes, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, adding that the police used stun grenades to disperse the Palestinians. Quiet was soon restored, he said. Israel and Hamas are bitter enemies, and fought a bruising 50-day war over the summer. Israel had no immediate response to the Hamas claim.
East Jerusalem has experienced unrest since the summer, with Palestinian youths throwing stones and firebombs at motorists and clashing frequently with Israeli police. Yitzhak Aharonovitch, Israel’s minister of public security, said civilians and police officers were among the victims. He praised the police officer who killed Akri, saying that “a terrorist who attacks civilians deserves to be killed”.
Barkat vowed to keep up the pressure on anyone seeking to terrorise the city through attacks or rioting. He was referring to persistent unrest which has gripped the city’s east for the past four months.
“This is a hard day for Jerusalem,” he said, urging the government to act with “a firm hand to win the war against terror and rioting”.
“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.
Earlier in the day, Jordan had recalled its ambassador in protest at what it described as Israeli “violations” in Jerusalem and its holy sites, the first time it has done so since the countries made peace in 1994, Jordanian officials said.
Israel last week closed for a day the compound housing the al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, amid increasing Israeli-Palestinian violence around it.
The move infuriated Jordanian King Abdullah, who is custodian of the sacred compound that also houses the Dome of the Rock mosque.
The decision to recall the ambassador was taken “in protest at the increasing and unprecedented Israeli escalation in the Noble Sanctuary, and the repeated Israeli violations of Jerusalem,” Jordan’s Petra news agency said.