A Palestinian took an excavator from construction site where he was working and rammed it into a bus this afternoon in Jerusalem. During the attack one man was killed and several more were reported injured.
A tractor driven by a Palestinian man rammed into a bus in central Jerusalem early Monday afternoon, close to the “seam” between the western and eastern parts of the city.
A male pedestrian approximately 30 years old was run over by the tractor as it headed toward the bus and was killed. The tractor driver turned the bus over onto its side in the attack, making several efforts to do so before he succeeded. The bus driver as well as five others were lightly hurt.
The attack occurred on Shmuel Hanavi Street. Two security personnel who realized what was happening shot and killed the terrorist, identified as Muhammed Naif El-Ja’abis from eastern Jerusalem.
A number of similar attacks have taken place in recent years.
In July 2008, a Palestinian took a bulldozer from a construction site where he was employed and drove it through the center of Jerusalem attacking pedestrians, cars and buses. Three people and more than 50 were injured before the terrorist was shot dead. Two months later a nineteen year old drove a car into a group of IDF soldiers and injured nine before he was killed. In March 2009 a Palestinian injured two people as he rammed his bulldozer into a police car. In July 2009 eighteen people were injured by a bulldozer attack in Jerusalem. In May 2011, a Palestinian drove a truck down a busy Tel Aviv street plowing into vehicles and pedestrians killing one and injuring eighteen.
[Photo: The Israel Project]