- Title: At least four dead in Palestinian truck-ramming attack in Jerusalem - police
- Date: 8th January 2017
- Summary: JERUSALEM (JANUARY 8, 2017) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ISRAELI SECURITY AND RESCUE TEAMS GATHERED AT SITE WHERE A TRUCK RAMMED INTO CROWD OF PEDESTRIANS, KILLING AT LEAST FOUR PEOPLE BULLET-RIDDLED TRUCK WINDSHIELD RESCUE TEAMS WORKING ON SITE (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISRAELI POLICE SPOKESMAN MICKY ROSENFELD, SAYING: "A short while ago here in Jerusalem a terrorist drove a truck into a group of people that just got off a bus. They were getting organized and were standing on the sidewalk. It was obviously a clear and direct attack that took place. We know that more than 10 people were taken to hospital in moderate condition and we have confirmed the number of people that unfortunately have been killed at the scene. Forensics and police units are still in the area. We are searching and looking to make sure that there are no further terrorists in the area. The terrorist himself who drove the truck was shot at the scene and a heightened security continues here in Jerusalem just a short while ago after the terrorist attack took place." VARIOUS OF SECURITY FORCES AT SITE TOURIST GUIDE LEAH SCHREIBER TALKING TO REPORTERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) TOURIST GUIDE, LEAH SCHREIBER, SAYING: "After about seven to 10 minutes that I was in the middle of... (the tour), and explaining about the view of Jerusalem, I hear my soldiers shouting and screaming and I didn't understand, and I am looking behind my soldiers, I am just seeing the truck that went on the sidewalk... hitting the soldiers and some of the soldiers started shooting at the chauffeur. It took them some time to kill him, so he had time to reverse, just to go back with his truck." VARIOUS OF SECURITY AND RESCUE FORCES STANDING NEAR TRUCK BEHIND POLICE CORDON
- Embargoed: 23rd January 2017 13:55
- Keywords: Israel Palestinians Jerusalem attack truck
- Location: JERUSALEM
- City: JERUSALEM
- Country: Israel
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace
- Reuters ID: LVA0015Y7YWJR
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A Palestinian rammed his truck into a group of Israeli soldiers on a popular promenade in Jerusalem on Sunday (January 8), killing four people and injuring about 15 others in a deliberate attack, police and emergency services said.
"A short while ago here in Jerusalem a terrorist drove a truck into a group of people that just got off a bus. They were getting organized and were standing on the sidewalk. It was obviously a clear and direct attack that took place. We know that more than 10 people were taken to hospital in moderate condition and we have confirmed the number of people that unfortunately have been killed at the scene," Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Reuters.
He identified the driver as a Palestinian from Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem and said he was shot dead. A dozen bullet holes pockmarked the windscreen.
It was the deadliest Palestinian attack in Jerusalem in months and targeted officer cadets who were disembarking from a bus that brought them to the Armon Hanatziv promenade, a stone-laden and grass-lined walkway with a panoramic view of the walled Old City.
Police said the dead, three women and one man, were all in their twenties, without identifying them further. Soldiers' deaths are announced in Israel only after families are notified.
Roni Alsheich, the national police chief, told reporters he could not rule out that the Palestinian was motivated by a truck ramming attack in a Berlin Christmas market that killed 12 people last month.
A wave of Palestinian street attacks, including vehicle rammings, has largely slowed but not stopped completely since it began in October 2015.
Security camera footage showed the truck racing towards the soldiers, and then after a gap that apparently included scenes of carnage, reversing into them.
Leah Schreiber, an Israeli tourist guide, who led one of the soldiers groups on the promenade, witnessed the attack.
"After about seven to 10 minutes that I was in the middle of... (the tour), and explaining about the view of Jerusalem, I hear my soldiers shouting and screaming and I didn't understand, and I am looking behind my soldiers, I am just seeing the truck that went on the sidewalk... hitting the soldiers and some of the soldiers started shooting at the chauffeur. It took them some time to kill him, so he had time to reverse, just to go back with his truck," she told Reuters.
The Israeli military regularly takes soldiers on educational tours of Jerusalem, including the Armon Hanatziv vantage point.
Channel 10 television said the soldiers' tour guide also fired at the assailant.
As a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem, which Israel considers part of its capital but the world does not, the truck driver would carry an Israeli identity card and be able to move freely through all of the city.
Palestinian street assaults over the past 15 months have killed at least 37 Israelis and two visiting Americans.
At least 231 Palestinians have been killed in violence in Israel, the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip during that period. Israel says at least 157 of them were assailants in lone attacks often targeting security forces and using rudimentary weapons including kitchen knives. Others died during clashes and protests.
Israel says one of the main causes of the violence has been incitement by the Palestinian leadership, with young men encouraged to attack Israeli soldiers and civilians.
The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, denies that allegation, and says assailants have acted out of frustration over Israeli occupation of land Palestinians seek for a state in peace talks stalled since 2014. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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