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Hamas claims responsibility for Jerusalem 'terror attack' where driver rammed pedestrians One dead, 13 hurt as car rams crowd in East Jerusalem raising tensions further
(about 4 hours later)
A driver has rammed a van into pedestrians in East Jerusalem in a suspected Hamas terror attack, killing one person and injuring a dozen more. A Palestinian driver rammed his car into a crowd at a tram stop in East Jerusalem yesterday, killing a border policeman and wounding 13 other people. The driver was shot dead by security forces after he left his car and tried to attack people with a metal rod, police said.
After crashing the vehicle, the driver got out with a metal bar and began to attack people nearby, police said. A Palestinian driver rammed his car into a crowd at a tram stop in East Jerusalem yesterday, killing a border policeman and wounding 13 other people. The driver was shot dead by security forces after he left his car and tried to attack people with a metal rod, police said.
The man, who was shot dead by police at the scene, was identified by an Israeli security official as Ibrahim al-Acri and the militant Islamist group Hamas claimed responsibility for what it termed “the heroic running-over operation”. The attack raised tensions in Jerusalem to their highest level in recent years. Its Arab neighbourhoods have been simmering over a perceived Israeli threat to Islam’s third holiest site, the al-Aqsa mosque, and the attack touched off a heated exchange of accusations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
A statement translated by the Jerusalem Post called al-Acri a “martyr” and hailed the attack as “a heroic operation.” Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, blamed “incitement” by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, while Abdullah Abdullah, a Palestinian politician who supports Mr Abbas, said Israeli policies were “a planned attack on the holy site of the Muslims” and had triggered “unfortunate reactions”.
“We congratulate the activity carried out by Jerusalem's blessed heroes that targeted soldiers and security men,” it said. Last week, a Palestinian tried to assassinate an Israeli activist who had called for Jews to be allowed to pray in the mosque compound, known to Israelis as the Temple Mount and considered Judaism’s holiest site. Police had clashed with Palestinian youths at the site shortly before the attack.
“This was a result of the crimes of the Zionists who continue to attack the worshipers and to violate the Palestinians' holy sites. Israeli authorities said five people were injured at the tram stop and that the driver kept going for another 500 yards, injuring more people as he smashed into cars. “He left his vehicle and attempted to hit people with a metal bar. He was shot and killed by border police at the scene,” a police spokesman said.
"We call on the people of Jerusalem and the West Bank and all of the Palestinians to carry out more of these activities with full force in order to defend al-Aqsa.” “We’re still working to find out if it was a planned attack or spontaneous,” he added.
The statement was referring to the continuing dispute over the religious site known as Temple Mount by Jews and the Holy Sanctuary or al-Haram al-Sharif by Muslims, where protests have been raging since the shooting of a Jewish activist last week. The attack was similar to one carried out two weeks ago at another tram stop in occupied East Jerusalem. On that occasion a three-month old baby and an Ecuadorian woman were killed when a Palestinian drove into a crowd of people waiting at the stop.
A spokesperson for Israel Police said an officer from the Border Police, named locally as Jedan Assad, 38, died after today’s attack and 13 others were hurt, including three seriously. Aviv Hovav, of the Israeli rescue service, was one of the first people on the scene yesterday. He said traffic lights had been knocked over and a lot of damage caused. “We saw five people on the side of the road who had been hit by the car. One was critically injured and two seriously wounded. Then it became clear to us there was another focal point with more wounded. Three of them were seriously wounded.”
Crowds were hit at two separate locations – one near the rail station on the corner of Bar-Lev and Shimon Hatzadik roads and another in Moshe Zaks Street. The driver of the car was identified as Ibrahim al-Aqari from the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem. The militant Hamas group applauded the attack. “We praise this heroic operation,” a spokesman said. “We call for more such operations.” Al-Aqari’s brother, Musa al-Aqari, spent 19 years in an Israeli jail for kidnapping and murdering a border policeman in 1992. He was released and expelled to Turkey as part of a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas in 2011.
Police and witnesses said the driver slammed his van into people at the railway stop and then ran over three paramilitary border policemen crossing a street straddling Palestinian and ultra-Orthodox Jewish areas, before getting out with the metal bar.
People gather at the scene after a Palestinian driver rammed his vehicle into a crowded train platform lies at the scene
“A border policeman, taking the initiative, drew his weapon and eliminated the terrorist,” Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat told reporters at the scene.
Footage from the station showed a white minivan careering down the track, dragging several people along the ground.
It was the second incident of its kind in two weeks, after a three-month-old baby girl was killed and seven people wounded when another man drove a car into people at a station near Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem.
The suspect, Abdel Rahman Al-Shaludi, was also shot dead by security officials.
Jerusalem has seen weeks of angry protests after Rabbi Yehuda Glick was shot at the Temple Mount/Holy Sanctuary.
Yehuda Glick, a 'Temple Mount' Jewish activist, at a conference at the Menachem Begin Heritage Centre in Jerusalem on October 29, just before he was shot
The site, which contains the al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock, was closed last week after protesters clashed over the attack and subsequent police shooting of a suspect.
The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, called the closure of the holy site a “declaration of war”, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the shooting of Mr Glick an “act of terrorism”.
One of the last messages on a Facebook page appearing to belong to al-Acri praised the shooting.
There have been daily Palestinian street protests in East Jerusalem, raising Israeli concern of a new Intifada, or uprising, after the collapse of US-brokered peace talks last April.
Police deployed stun grenades outside the Noble Sanctuary/Temple Mount as protests continued on Wednesday and although quiet temporarily returned, tensions were expected to flare again after the van attack.
The Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary compound with The Dome of the RockThe Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary compound with The Dome of the Rock
The sensitive religious site, claimed as the most holy in Judaism and third-most sacred in Islam - is open to Jews and followers of other religions as visitors but only Muslims are allowed to pray there. Israel’s Minister of Public Security, Yitzhak Aharanovich, applauded the security forces for their swift response. “A terrorist who harms citizens deserves to die,” he said. Mr Aharanovich added that he would recommend to Mr Netanyahu that the homes of people who carry out such attacks be demolished. “For everyone who harms police and civilians, their home must be destroyed,” he said. He added that it is impossible for police to stop every attack but vowed that “quiet will be restored to Jerusalem”.
Jordan recalled its ambassador to Israel on Wednesday in protest against the Noble Sanctuary closure, which it called an Israeli "violation". It was the first time it has done so since the countries made peace in 1994, Jordanian officials said. Mr Netanyahu, speaking at a memorial event for Yitzhak Rabin, the former prime minister who was assassinated in 1995, called the attack “a direct result of the incitement by Abu Mazen [an alternative name for Mr Abbas] and his partners in Hamas”. He appeared to be referring to a condolence letter the Palestinian leader had sent to the family of last week’s would-be assassin. Mr Abbas wrote that he had died defending Palestinian holy sites and had gone to heaven.
It lies in East Jerusalem - which was captured by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967 and remains a focal point for the Arab-Israeli conflict as the Palestinian Authority continues to claim sovereignty. Mr Netanyahu has said there will be no change to the status quo at the al-Aqsa mosque. But far-right members of the Knesset, including some from Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party, have visited the site and proposed giving Jews the legal right to pray there; and Muslim access to the mosque has been restricted, supposedly for security reasons. All this has heightened Palestinian fears about Israeli intentions.
It is a flashpoint for violence when tensions rise in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories and has seen angry protests over the summer.
As well as tensions following the 50-day war in Gaza earlier this year, there is anger over Israel’s plans to press forward with the construction of Jewish settlements in the largely Muslim East Jerusalem.
Additional reporting by Reuters