Signs suggest truck driver who killed four soldiers supported Islamic State -Israeli PM

Record ID: 163458

  • Title: Signs suggest truck driver who killed four soldiers supported Islamic State -Israeli PM
  • Date: 8th January 2017
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (JANUARY 8, 2017) (REUTERS) CAR CONVOY CARRYING ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU AND DEFENCE MINISTER AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN ARRIVING AT SITE SECURITY NEXT TO BULLET-RIDDLED TRUCK WINDSHIELD NETANYAHU AND LIEBERMAN VISITING SITE
  • Embargoed: 23rd January 2017 15:39
  • Keywords: Benjamin Netanyahu truck ramming attack Palestinians Israel
  • Location: JERUSALEM
  • City: JERUSALEM
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace
  • Reuters ID: LVA0015Y7YY4N
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday (January 8) a Palestinian truck driver who rammed a group of soldiers in Jerusalem, killing four and wounding 15 others, was likely a supporter of Islamic State.
    Netanyahu, who convened a forum of senior ministers to discuss Israel's response, visited the scene of the attack on Sunday and said of the truck driver, a resident of a Palestinian neighbourhood in East Jerusalem: "We know the identity of the attacker, according to all the signs he is a supporter of Islamic State."
    "We know there is a string of attacks and there could definitely be a connection between them, from France to Berlin, and now in Jerusalem, and we fight this problem," he added.
    The incident 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.
    Police identified the driver as a Palestinian from Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem and said he was shot dead. His uncle told Reuters that the truck driver was Fadi Ahmad Hamdan Qunbor, 28, a father of four.
    A wave of Palestinian street attacks, including vehicle rammings, has largely slowed but not stopped completely since it began in October 2015.
    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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