MIDDLE EAST: Hamas praises suspected excavator attack in Jerusalem

Record ID: 355007

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: Hamas praises suspected excavator attack in Jerusalem
  • Date: 4th August 2014
  • Summary: SECURITY AT SCENE ISRAELIS AT SCENE VARIOUS OF BUS AND CONSTRUCTION VEHICLE IN STREET DAMAGE IN BUS ISRAELI SECURITY CLOSING AREA GAZA CITY, GAZA (AUGUST 4, 2014) (REUTERS) HAMAS SPOKESMAN, MUSHIR AL-MASRI, TALKING TO MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) HAMAS SPOKESMAN, MUSHIR AL-MASRI, SAYING: "The operation in Jerusalem is a brave and heroic one, and it is a natural reaction t
  • Embargoed: 19th August 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jerusalem, Gaza
  • City:
  • Country: Gaza Jerusalem
  • Topics: Crime,Conflict,General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAES7ZOKSN9P1PTHQ9S43PTK0K8
  • Story Text: Hamas praised on Monday (August 4) a suspected construction vehicle attack in Jerusalem, which killed one civilian and wounded several others.
    A construction vehicle hit and killed a pedestrian and overturned a bus on a main street in Jerusalem on Monday in what police suspect was a Palestinian attack, which ended when policemen shot dead the driver of the yellow excavator.
    There were no passengers on the bus, in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood of the city. Surveillance video broadcast on Israeli television showed the excavator's mechanical arm tearing into the side of the bus as it lay on the sidewalk.
    Israeli media said the driver of the digger was a Palestinian from East Jerusalem.
    In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri welcomed the incident in Jerusalem.
    "The operation in Jerusalem is a brave and heroic one, and it is a natural reaction to on the Israeli offensive. And the occupation should expect more as long as there are attacks on our Palestinian nation. Our nation today, everywhere, confirms that we will not leave Gaza alone under the occupation offensive," al-Masri said.
    But an uncle of the Palestinian man driving the construction vehicle said his nephew was innocent.
    "We are in this current situation, according to what is happening in general in Palestine. Israel today looks to the Palestinians with a different eye - with hatred. They try to show their hatred by shooting on anyone for only suspecting him," Hisham Jaamees said.
    Tensions have been high in Jerusalem for the past month over the Gaza war and the killing of a Palestinian teen in the city by alleged Israeli assailants out to avenge the deaths of three abducted Israeli youngsters in the occupied West Bank.
    In two incidents in July 2008, construction vehicles driven by Palestinians hit Israeli buses and pedestrians, killing a total of three people. In both incidents, the attackers were shot dead.
    Three years later, an Arab truck driver drove into cars and pedestrians in Tel Aviv, killing one person, in what police said was a deliberate attack. The driver was apprehended and sentenced to life imprisonment.
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