Bloodbath at the bus stop: three killed in attacks in Jerusalem
THESE were the devastating scenes in Israel yesterday after a series of attacks left three people dead.
On what was described by Palestinian groups as a ‘Day of Rage’, one man rammed his car into a crowded bus stop before stabbing pedestrians with a meat cleaver.
One Israeli died in the attack in central Jerusalem while six were injured, police said.
In another incident just minutes before, two Palestinian men boarded a bus in the city and began shooting and stabbing passengers. They killed two and injured four.
The Jerusalem attacks, along with two stabbings in the central Israeli city of Ra’anana, left more than 20 injured, officials said.
They marked the most serious outbreak of violence in a month-long wave of attacks.
The violence followed Israeli jet strikes in the Gaza strip over the weekend in which rockets reportedly killed a Palestinian mother and child.
Near-daily stabbings by Palestinians have left dozens of Israelis dead and wounded over the past fortnight.
Several of the attackers and at least 17 other Palestinians have been killed during the upsurge in violence. The rising tide of unrest has raised fears of a full-scale third Palestinian uprising, or intifada.
During the first and second intifadas, in 1987-1993 and 20002005, hundreds were killed in near daily violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
Israeli prime minister Ben- jamin Netanyahu held an emergency session of the security cabinet to discuss how to prevent further attacks.
He said Israel would use ‘all means’ available to end Palestinian violence and that new security measures were planned.
Speaking in parliament, he warned Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to stop inciting violence, and said that he would hold him responsible if his rhetoric led to further clashes.
In the bus attack, the two assailants shot several passengers and stabbed others on board the vehicle in East Talpiot, a district in East Jerusalem also known as Armon Hanatziv, police said. A security guard was able to overpower one of them and shoot him, according to Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
The second attacker then reportedly locked the bus doors in an attempt to stop police from boarding it and passengers from escaping, but officers opened fire from outside and shot him.
Just minutes later, in the Geula district of west Jerusalem, a man ran over three people with his car as he ploughed it into a bus stop.
He then got out of the vehicle and stabbed bystanders with a meat cleaver, police said.
The attacker was shot by a security guard and seriously wounded.
Leaders of Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza hailed the attacks in Jerusalem. Spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the group ‘praises these heroic operations ... and greets the heroes who carried them out’.
Violence followed Israeli jet strikes