- Title: Familiy of truck driver who killed four in Jerusalem speaks
- Date: 8th January 2017
- Summary: BLOOD STAIN ON TRUCK
- Embargoed: 23rd January 2017 16:10
- Keywords: Palestinians Israel Jeruaslem truck-ramming attack
- Location: JERUASLEM
- City: JERUASLEM
- Country: Israel
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace
- Reuters ID: LVA0025Y7ZBK7
- 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 soldiers in an attack which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said had likely been inspired by Islamic State.
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 identified the truck driver as a Palestinian from Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem and said he was shot dead. His uncle, Abu Ali, named him as Fadi Ahmad Hamdan Qunbor, 28, a father of four from the Jabel Mukabar neighbourhood.
"We are here heard about the incident like all the other people, we do not know if it was an accident or attack. After around an hour, they (Israeli forces) raided the area in big numbers. They arrested women and men, and they destroyed the houses. We filmed and documented everything. They attacked everyone, even the people who were in the street. Also they closed the entrance for the village," Abu Ali said.
A dozen bullet holes pockmarked the windscreen. At least 15 people were injured in the attack. Police said the dead, three women and one man, were all in their twenties.
Netanyahu visited the scene of the attack and said the assailant was likely a supporter of Islamic State. He convened a forum of senior ministers to discuss Israel's response.
Roni Alsheich, the national police chief, told reporters he could not rule out that the driver had been 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.
Rescue workers said the wounded were strewn on the street at the promenade as ambulances raced to the scene. The Israeli military regularly takes soldiers on educational tours of Jerusalem, including the Armon Hanatziv vantage point.
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.
Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza praised Sunday's attack. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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