Story highlights
- Police identify the driver as member of Hamas
- Police say they shot and killed the driver
- The incident was a "terrorist attack," police spokesman says
- After hitting pedestrians and cars, driver got out and attacked people with an iron bar
A driver of a commercial van ran over pedestrians at a train stop in eastern Jerusalem on Wednesday, killing an Israeli border police officer and injuring 13 other people before getting out of his vehicle and attacking people with a metal bar, Israeli police said.
Police shot and killed the attacker, identified by Israeli authorities as a member of the Islamist Hamas movement and a resident of the Shuafat Palestinian refugee camp in eastern Jerusalem, Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.
The attack came on another day of tension between Israelis and Palestinians over Jerusalem's Temple Mount -- one of the holiest sites in Judaism and Islam -- where Israeli police clashed with Palestinians on Wednesday.
No motive for the van attack was immediately released, but Hamas backed it in a text message to the news media: "Hamas blesses the action. What is happening in Jerusalem is pushing us to prepare for war."
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld called the incident "a terrorist attack."
Samri said the incident started when the van hit three border policemen waiting to cross the road.
The van ran over pedestrians standing at the light-train station and continued to travel along the main road, hitting cars, until it struck a vehicle at a main intersection, she said.
Are van attacks part of new terror plot? 03:03
Driver runs over pedestrians in Jerusalem 02:40
Photos: Pedestrians attacked in Jerusalem
Photos: Pedestrians attacked in Jerusalem
Pedestrians attacked in Jerusalem – The body of a Palestinian attacker lies covered on the rails at a Jerusalem light train station on Wednesday, November 5. A police spokeswoman said the man was shot and killed after he deliberately rammed his vehicle into a crowd of pedestrians, then got out of the vehicle and attacked people with a metal bar. One pedestrian, an Israeli border police officer, was killed and 14 other people were injured.
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Photos: Pedestrians attacked in Jerusalem
Pedestrians attacked in Jerusalem – Police and investigators inspect the van used in the hit and run. Police said the suspect ran over three border police officers waiting to cross the road, then drove into pedestrians standing at the train station.
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Photos: Pedestrians attacked in Jerusalem
Pedestrians attacked in Jerusalem – Police officers patrol the scene of the attack. A police spokesman called the incident a terrorist attack.
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Photos: Pedestrians attacked in Jerusalem
Pedestrians attacked in Jerusalem – Israeli firefighters inspect the scene of the attack. Police identified the driver as a member of the militant Islamic group Hamas.
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Photos: Pedestrians attacked in Jerusalem
Pedestrians attacked in Jerusalem – Onlookers gather at the crime scene. A police spokeswoman said the attacker was 38 years old and had been released from prison recently.
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Photos: Pedestrians attacked in Jerusalem
Pedestrians attacked in Jerusalem – Rescue workers and paramedics carry an injured man to an ambulance.
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Photos: Pedestrians attacked in Jerusalem
Pedestrians attacked in Jerusalem – Investigators inspect the scene.
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Photos: Pedestrians attacked in Jerusalem
Pedestrians attacked in Jerusalem – Investigators look over the vehicle used in the attack. A witness said he heard police fire about 20 shots at the suspect.
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The driver got out and attacked people with an iron bar before police shot and killed him, she said. He was 38 years old and had recently been released from prison, Samri said.
Witness Khaled Husseini said he heard police fire about 20 shots. The van crashed in an area of Jerusalem with several large hotels.
Video from the scene showed emergency response workers in orange vests lifting victims into waiting ambulances. At least one body was lying in the road covered with a sheet, but it was not clear whether that was the van's driver.
Husseini said he saw Israeli police officers lying on the road after being hit by the van.
The attack comes on the heels of two hit-and-run incidents that happened in Jerusalem and the West Bank last month.
On October 22, a Palestinian man rammed his car into commuters waiting at a light rail stop in Jerusalem, killing a baby and wounding several other people, Israeli police said.
Palestinian state news reported that a 5-year-old girl died October 19 after an Israeli settler deliberately ran over her as she returned home from kindergarten near a village to the north of Ramallah in the West Bank, according to medical sources.
A second 5-year-old girl was struck and was listed in critical condition, Palestinian state news said. The driver fled the scene.
