Palestinian mows down 4 Israel soldiers Bibi blames ISIS for terror at tourist site
FOUR ISRAELI soldiers were killed and 17 others injured Sunday when a Palestinian man with suspected ISIS ties slammed his truck into them at a popular Jerusalem tourist spot, marking the deadliest single attack in Israel in more than a year.
Fadi Qunbar, 28, of East Jerusalem, committed the deadly attack along a popular overlook in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood that provides a sweeping vista of the city, according to authorities.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited the attack site, said there was strong evidence the attacker was a supporter of the Islamic State and suggested a link to previous vehicle attacks in Europe.
“We know that there is a sequence of terror attacks. There definitely could be a connection between them, from France to Berlin and now Jerusalem,” Netanyahu told reporters.
President-elect Donald Trump, who is already enjoying a cozier relationship with Netanyahu than President Obama ever had, had not commented on the attack as of Sunday evening.
Mayor de Blasio wrote three tweets stressing his support of Israel, vowing to “reinforce protections” for the Jewish community in New York.
“NYC stands with Israel,” he said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and everyone affected by the unspeakable terror attack in Jerusalem.”
De Blasio said the attack underscores why the NYPD put an “additional 500 counterterrorism officers on our streets in ’16.”
Gov. Cuomo and state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman also condemned the violence.
The Israeli military said the soldiers had been participating in an educational trip.
Three of the dead, including one officer, were women. It is the highest fatality total for military personnel in Israel since Operation Protective Edge in Gaza in 2014 claimed 73 lives.
Sunday’s victims were Yael Yekutiel; 20, Shira Hajaj, 22; Shira Tzur, 20, and Erez Orbach, 20, according to local reports.
Security camera footage showed the truck barreling into a crowd of soldiers gathered next to a bus. The truck quickly backed up and was poised to lurch into the crowd again before the driver was shot dead. “He drove backward to crush more people. That was really clear,” witness Leah Schreiber told reporters. The attacker came from a neighborhood, Jabel
Mukaber, where many past assailants lived. The neighborhood has sporadically experienced violent clashes between residents and Israeli security forces.
Netanyahu ordered a shutdown of the neighborhood. Israeli media said his security cabinet decided to destroy the attacker’s home and withhold the release of his body.
Relatives and neighbors said Qunbar, a father of four, espoused an ultraconservative version of Islam, known as Salafism, but had no known ties to militant groups. Salafism is split into peaceful and violent streams, with the latter promoting ideas that are close to those of ISIS. Neither ISIS nor any other group claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack.
A woman who identified herself as Qunbar’s sister told journalists his wife had asked him to come home for lunch, but he turned her down because he “had work to do.” She said police arrested the attacker’s parents, wife and two brothers.