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8 HASHALOM February
2017
February 2017
HASHALOM
9
By Judah Ari Gross - The Times of Israel
4 Killed as terrorist plows truck into troops in Jerusalem
16 injured in ramming attack at Armon Hanatziv promenade; attacker, an East Jerusalem man, shot to death
A truck rammed into a group of soldiers on a promenade in the Armon
Hanatziv neighborhood of Jerusalem, killing at least four of them, in a
vehicle-ramming attack on Sunday afternoon, police said.
Police chief Roni Alsheich called the incident a vehicular terror attack.
The soldiers were getting off a bus at the promenade, a popular tourist
spot in southern Jerusalem, when a large flatbed truck ran into them.
At least 16 more people were injured, two of them very seriously,
according to Jerusalem hospitals.
The four soldiers - three women and one man - were later named
as Lieutenant Yael Yekutiel (20) of Givatayim, Cadet Shir Hajaj (22)
of Maaleh Adumim, Cadet Shira Tzur (20) from Haifa, and Cadet Erez
Orbach (20) from Alon Shvut.
According to police, the terrorist accelerated as he struck the group.
Israeli security forces and emergency
personnel gather at the site of a vehicle-
ramming attack in Jerusalem on January
8, 2017. (AFP/MENAHEM KAHANA)
A composite image of the four Israeli soldiers killed on January 8, 2017 in a
truck-ramming terror attack in Jerusalem. From left, IDF Lieutenant Yael Yekutiel, IDF
Cadet Shir Hajaj, IDF Cadet Shira Tzur, IDF Cadet Erez Orbach. (Handout photos IDF
Spokesperson)
The scene of a truck-ramming attack in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood of East
Jerusalem on January 8, 2016. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)
Eyewitnesses said that after the driver hit the soldiers with his truck,
he put the vehicle in reverse and ran over them a second time.
A composite image of the four Israeli soldiers killed on January 8,
2017 in a truck-ramming terror attack in Jerusalem. From left, IDF
Lieutenant Yael Yekutiel, IDF Cadet Shir Hajaj, IDF Cadet Shira Tzur, IDF
Cadet Erez Orbach. (Handout photos IDF Spokesperson)
Footage of the incident taken from a security camera showed the truck
run into the group of soldiers as they stood next to a bus. The driver
then attempts to turn the truck around and run over the group again
as people scramble for cover. The driver of the vehicle was shot by
both soldiers and by a civilian guide, police said. He died of his wounds.
“In a fraction of a second during which I was speaking with one of the
officers, I saw the truck plowing into us. After a few rolls on the grass I
saw the truck start to reverse and then I already understood that this
was not an accident. I felt that my pistol was still on me, so I ran up to
him and started emptying my clip. He went in reverse and again drove
over the injured,” the guide, Eitan Rund, said.
Speaking to Israeli television, Rund questioned why soldiers hesitated,
he said, before turning their own weapons on the driver. “I have to ask
why it took a 30-year-old civilian to fire first,” he said, “when there were
well-armed officers” present. He asserted that last week’s conviction for
manslaughter of soldier Elor Azaria, who shot dead a disarmed, injured
Palestinian assailant, was “definitely” a factor in the ostensible hesitation.
An initial IDF inquiry showed at least two to three soldiers opened fire
from close range, and are thought to be the ones who killed the terrorist.
Moshe Aharon, the driver of the bus, told Army Radio that “a group of
soldiers was standing with their bags near the bus. I had just let them off.
The truck drove into the group of soldiers, ran over them and kept going.
The soldiers shot at the driver. He reversed and ran over them again.”
Leah Schreiber, one of the guides for the group of soldiers, told
reporters that the driver had reversed and run over the bodies again.
“I was explaining about the view of Jerusalem. I saw soldiers shouting
and screaming. Some of the soldiers started shooting. It took some
time to kill [the driver] so he was able to reverse. The whole thing took
maybe a minute and a half,” Schreiber said.
At first, it was not clear if this was an accident or a deliberate attack,
but Schreiber said she “understood it was a terror attack when they
started shooting at him.”
A number of victims were trapped under the truck after the incident,
according to a Magen David Adom paramedic on the scene.
The soldiers were visiting the capital as part of the army’s “Culture
Sundays,” in which troops are taken to important historical and national
sites at the beginning of the week.
According to the Ben Zvi Institute, which led the trip for the army, the
soldiers were cadets from the IDF’s officer’s training course, but from
non-combat units.
ISRAEL
OBITUARY
ZENA I. LEVIN
Levin, Zena I.
Sept. 20, 1930 - Dec. 12, 2016
Zena Inez Levin was born Sept. 20, 1930 in Johannesburg,
South Africa, and died Dec. 12, 2016, in Sarasota, FL. She
made Aliyah to Kibbutz Tzora early in 1950, where she
married her husband Vic. They later returned to South
Africa, and made their home in Durban for many years and
subsequently emigrated to the U.S. in 1979.
Zena attended Jeppe Girls High School in Johannesburg and
the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban. A high school
teacher, she taught English and history at Northlands
Girls High School in Durban. Zena was an enthusiastic
woman and instilled in others her love of people and of
the outdoors. She was gentle, kind and considerate, and
treated strangers as friends. Zena is survived by her
beloved husband of 65 years, Victor Michael Levin; her
four children: Roni Snitcher, Alan Levin, Dana Sanchez and
Jules Levin; and seven grandchildren. Her brothers Des
and Hilton live in Durban and Israel.
The scene of an apparent truck ramming attack in
Jerusalem in January 8, 2017. (Twitter)
IDF soldiers take part in a group psychotrauma debriefing
following a deadly truck-ramming attack in the Armon
Hanatziv neighborhood of East Jerusalem on January 8,
2016. (Melanie Lidman/Times of Israel)
Dr. Ofer Merin speaking with reporters at Shaare Zedek
medical center following a terror attack in Jerusalem,
January 8, 2017. (Renee Ghert-Zand/Times of Israel)
Eitan Rund speaking to reporters
from Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in
Jerusalem on January 8, 2017. (screen
capture: Channel 2)
ISRAEL
Fadi al-Qanbar, named as the terrorist who plowed a truck into Israeli
soldiers in Jerusalem on January 8, 2017 (Channel 2 screenshot)
The driver of the truck was identified as Fadi al-Qanbar, a resident of
the capital’s Jabel Mukaber neighborhood, according to Arab media.
The truck, with Israeli license plates, came from the direction of that
neighborhood, which is adjacent to the promenade.
He was in his late 20s, married with four children, and had served time
in Israeli jail, Channel 2 said. He bought the truck last year.
One seriously injured soldier was sent to Shaare Zedek hospital.
She was unconscious and doctors were attempting to stabilize her
condition, a spokesperson for the hospital said.
Another four victims who were lightly injured were also sent to Shaare
Zedek, the hospital said.
Nine victims were sent to Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem, one in serious
condition, two in moderate condition and six lightly wounded.
Two victims who were lightly injured were sent to Hadassah Hospital
Mt. Scopus, the hospital said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the Hamas terror
group praised the attack as “heroic.”
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem lauded the attack on his Facebook
page, saying, “These operations demonstrate that all attempts to
bypass the resistance or to thwart it will fail every time.”
Palestinian assailants have used vehicle rammings as a method for
terror attacks for years, and the method seemed to have been adopted
by European jihadists in recent months, including in an attack in Berlin
last month that left 12 dead, including an Israeli woman.
Less than an hour after the attack, a Jerusalem court imposed a gag
order on the investigation.
The Haas-Sherover Promenade promenade is a southern location that
offers a panoramic view over Jerusalem and the Old City. In May, two
elderly women were stabbed and moderately injured in a park below
the promenade in what police said was a terror attack.