A Palestinian terrorist rammed his car into a crowd of Israeli pedestrians in Jerusalem, at two separate spots near the light rail, including one crowded station, killing a Border Police officer and injuring 14 other people, according to The Jerusalem Post. Israeli authorities were aware that the terrorist, Ibrahim al-Acri, was a Hamas operative, and the terrorist organization claimed responsibility for the attack, referring to al Acri as a "martyr" who conducted "a heroic operation."
This attack comes in context of a string of terrorist attacks targeting Israelis in Jerusalem in recent weeks. On October 22, a suspected Hamas member similarly crashed his car into a crowd of Israelis exiting the light rail in Jerusalem, killing a three month-old American-Israeli girl, and a woman from Ecuador, and injuring eight others. Jerusalem is witnessing an increase in Palestinian attacks, including rock throwing and Molotov cocktails.
According to WAFA, an official Palestinian National Authority news agency, the terrorist in the latest attack is innocent who merely lost control of his car. The WAFA report omits the fact that after ramming his car over one person, the terrorist sped off to another nearby junction where he crashed into other pedestrians. The terrorist then allegedly exited the car with a metal bar and continued to attack more people before Israeli police killed him.
Click here to view security camera footage of the attack's initial stage.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its Hamas partners of encouraging these latest terrorist attacks through incendiary rhetoric and incitement to violence.
"The vehicular terror attack today in Jerusalem, is the direct result of incitement by Abu Mazen [PA President Mahmoud Abbas] and his partner Hamas," stated Netanyahu, speaking at the annual state remembrance ceremony commemorating assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Earlier this week, Abbas' party Fatah called for a "Day of Rage" in Jerusalem and explicitly encouraged further clashes and attacks against Israelis in the city.
After claiming responsibility for today's action, Hamas has called for more terrorist attacks against Israelis.
"We call on the people of Jerusalem and the West Bank and all of the Palestinians to carry out more of these activities with full force in order to defend al-Aksa," according to a Hamas' statement released today.