JERUSALEM – A Palestinian laborer driving a construction vehicle rammed into packed buses, tossed cars into the air and rolled over pedestrians in a rampage yesterday that killed three people and wounded dozens in Jerusalem.
Hundreds of panicked people were sent running for cover in the bustling commercial district before the attacker was shot dead by security forces.
The unusual attack threatened both Israelis' sense of security and Palestinians' fragile status in the city.
Three Palestinian militant groups claimed responsibility for the onslaught, the first major attack in Jerusalem in four months. However, Israeli police said the assailant, a 30-year-old Palestinian from an Arab neighborhood of east Jerusalem, apparently acted alone. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the man was working on a railway project in Jerusalem.
Israel called the attack a “senseless act” and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is trying to negotiate a peace accord with Israel, condemned it. In Washington, the White House said President Bush called the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to express his sorrow over the incident.
Three people were killed and 45 were injured, including two babies.
The mother of one of the babies hurled the child out of the car window to save her as the attacker bore down on their vehicle, and the mother was also injured. The mother of the other baby, Batsheva Unterman, 33, was killed.
A second dead woman was identified as Elizabeth Goren-Friedman, 54, a dual Austrian-Israeli citizen who had lived in Israel for several years, the Austrian Foreign Ministry said. The third victim was a man.
The attacker began his rampage on a street near Jerusalem's central bus station, and then turned onto Jaffa Road – the main downtown thoroughfare – crushing everything in his path. At one point, he rammed into the back of a crowded bus, flipping it on its side.
The attacker was stopped only after a police officer climbed into the Caterpillar's cabin and wrestled with the driver. An off-duty soldier and a special forces officer then jumped on the vehicle and shot the driver dead.
“I ran up the stairs (of the vehicle) and when he was still driving like crazy and trying to harm civilians, I fired at him twice more and, that's it, he was neutralized,” said Eli Mizrahi, the anti-terror unit officer.
The attack took place in front of a building housing the offices of The Associated Press and other media outlets. BBC footage captured the rampage and the shootout.
Friends identified the attacker as Hussam Dwayat, a devout Muslim and father of two who they said had no known ties to militant groups. “Everybody is in shock,” said Salayan Weyed, a friend of the man's wife.
Dwayat had been fined $50,000 for building his house without a permit, and a demolition order was on file, said Hassib Nashashibi, head of a group that defends Palestinians against such orders.
Later yesterday, five military vehicles gathered outside the family's two-story home in east Jerusalem, where police interviewed relatives. Police said Dwayat had a criminal background, but gave no details.
After the attack, Israeli media were filled with demands from hard-line Israelis to take steps against Jerusalem's Palestinians – expelling the families of attackers, destroying their houses and refusing to employ them.
About two-thirds of Jerusalem's 700,000 residents are Jews, and the rest are Palestinians who came under Israeli control when Israel captured their part of the city in 1967.
Though Jews and Arabs have little social interaction, Palestinians perform much of the city's blue-collar work. In contrast to West Bank Palestinians, Arab residents of Jerusalem have full freedom to work and travel throughout Israel. Many Jerusalem Arabs work in the construction industry.
