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Arab terrorist from East Jerusalem drives car into bystanders

JERUSALEM — An Arab resident of east Jerusalem rammed his vehicle into a group of soldiers at a central Jerusalem thoroughfare late Monday night, Sept. 21, wounding 15 people, before being shot dead by an off-duty IDF officer, police and rescue officials said.

It was the third such attack in the city in as many months.

The attack took place at the city’s Kikar Tzahal near Jaffa Gate. Two of the casualties were in moderate condition, the rest were lightly hurt.

The assailant, who was driving a BMW, crashed into a group of off-duty soldiers on the sidewalk, where his car came to a grinding halt.

Jerusalem police chief Aharon Franco said that the attacker was shot dead ‘within seconds’ by an off-duty IDF officer who was touring the city with his unit.

He added that there was no intelligence information ahead of the attack, but noted that Jerusalem was under heavy security alert due to Ramadan.

The city’s police chief said that the lone attacker was an Arab resident of east Jerusalem. He was identified as Kasem Mugrabi, 19, from Jabel Mukaber.

The pedestrians wounded in the attack were rushed to Jerusalem’s Hadassah-University Hospital at Ein Kerem, Hadassah-University Hospital on Mount Scopus and the city’s Sha’are Tzedek Hospital.

The attack came after two back-to-back bulldozer attacks in Jerusalem in July which left three Israelis dead and dozens wounded.

Half an hour after the attack, dozens of angry Orthodox residents chased two Arab locals who happened to be in the area.

Many chanted racist slogans such as ‘Death to the Arabs’ and tried to walk toward the Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem. Police on horseback dispersed the Orthodox Jews, ensuring that the violence did not escalate.

The attack comes after two back-to-back bulldozer attacks in Jerusalem in July which left three Israelis dead and dozens wounded.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak called to expedite legal processes so that security forces could demolish homes of terrorists in order to deter future attacks.

An American yeshiva student, identified only as Haim, told the Jerusalem Post he came across the attack as it happened.

Haim said he was walking near the Old City and heard gun shots, there was chaos and he saw wounded people on the ground who seemed to be ‘in pretty bad shape.’

The young man told the Post that as he was running away, he saw soldiers running toward the scene loading their rifles.

Hospitals in Jerusalem opened their emergency hot-lines following the incident.

Abe Selig and Yaakov Katz contributed to this report.




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