Funeral held for victim of Jerusalem truck attack

Record ID: 163621

  • Title: Funeral held for victim of Jerusalem truck attack
  • Date: 9th January 2017
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (JANUARY 9, 2017) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ISRAELI SOLDIERS CARRYING COFFIN OF LIEUTENANT SHIR HAJAJ, WHO WAS KILLED IN PALESTINIAN TRUCK RAMMING ATTACK MOURNERS WALKING VARIOUS OF COFFIN BEING PLACED NEAR GRAVE MOURNERS CRYING/BURIAL TAKING PLACE VARIOUS OF MOURNERS CRYING COMMANDER LAYING WREATH ON GRAVE BEREAVED MOTHER CRYING SOLDIERS IN GUARD OF HONOUR FIRING MOURNERS AROUND GRAVE (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) HERZEL HAJAJ, BEREAVED FATHER, SAYING: "We are paying the price. They (eds note: refers to Palestinians) are now throwing candy, celebrating and joyful. Instead (eds note: refers to the Israeli army) needs to raid there, with bulldozers like it used to be done fifty years ago to erase the village. This is what happens." MORE OF FUNERAL
  • Embargoed: 24th January 2017 14:38
  • Keywords: Netanyahu Jerusalem truck attack wounded hospital
  • Location: JERUSALEM
  • City: JERUSALEM
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace
  • Reuters ID: LVA0015YCZ9S7
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT INCLUDES MATERIAL WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday (January 9) "a new kind of attack" was faced by Israelis after visiting soldiers wounded in a truck ramming attack at a Jerusalem promenade that killed four soldiers.
    It was the deadliest Palestinian attack in Jerusalem in months and targeted officer cadets on Sunday (January 8) as they disembarked from a bus that brought them to the Armon Hanatziv promenade, which has a panoramic view of the walled Old City.
    The military said a female officer and three officer cadets were killed and that 17 others were injured. Police said three of the dead were women.
    At the funeral held in Jerusalem for a female soldier, Shir Hajaj, her father spoke of his anger at the celebrations taking place in the village of the Palestinian attacker.
    "We are paying the price. They (eds note: refers to Palestinians) are now throwing candy, celebrating and joyful. Instead (eds note: refers to the Israeli army) needs to raid there, with bulldozers like it used to be done fifty years ago to erase the village. This is what happens," Herzel Hajaj said.
    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.
    Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that nine Jabel Mukabar residents, including five members of the attacker's family, were arrested on suspicion of aiding the attacker.
    "I think that the most important thing we need to understand is that we are under a new kind of attack. An attack by a lone assailant who is inspired, and on the spur of the moment decides to act, in this case, a ramming attack," said Netanyahu as he visited injured soldiers recovering at Ein Karem hospital in Jerusalem.
    Defence Minister Avigdor Liberman denounced the Palestinian Authority for not condemning the attack.
    A government source said ministers had called for the demolition of the attacker's home and for his body not to be returned to the family for burial. It also decided to detain without trial persons expressing sympathy for Islamic State.
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