JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A Palestinian rammed his truck
into a group of Israeli soldiers on a popular promenade in
Jerusalem on Sunday, killing four people and
injuring about 15 others in a deliberate attack, police and
emergency services said. Police identified the driver as a Palestinian from
Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem and said he was shot
dead. A dozen bullet holes pockmarked the windscreen.

It was the deadliest Palestinian attack in Jerusalem
in months and targeted officer cadets who were disembarking from
a bus that brought them to the Armon Hanatziv promenade, a
stone-laden and grass-lined walkway with a panoramic view of the
walled Old City. “It is a terrorist attack, a ramming attack,” a police
spokeswoman said.

Police said the dead, three women and one man, were all in their
twenties, without identifying them further. Soldiers’ deaths are
announced in Israel only after families are notified. Roni Alsheich, the national police chief, told reporters he could
not rule out that the Palestinian was motivated by a truck
ramming attack in a Berlin Christmas market that killed 12 people
last month.

“It is certainly possible to be influenced by watching TV but it
is difficult to get into the head of every individual to
determine what prompted him, but there is no doubt that these
things do have an effect,” Alsheich told reporters.

A wave of Palestinian street attacks, including vehicle rammings,
has largely slowed but not stopped completely since it began in
October 2015.

Multiple people fire at the truck

Israeli
soldiers work at the scene where police said a Palestinian rammed
his truck into a group of Israeli soldiers on a popular promenade
in Jerusalem January 8, 2017.
REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

Security camera footage showed the truck racing towards the
soldiers, and then after a gap that apparently included scenes of
carnage, reversing into them.

“In a split second I looked to my left and saw what I can only
describe as a speeding truck which sent me flying,” a security
guard, who was identified only as “A” told Channel 10.

“It was a miracle that my pistol stayed on me. I shot at a tire
but realized there was no point as he has many wheels, so I ran
in front of the cabin and at an angle I shot at him and emptied
my magazine. When I finished shooting, some of the officer cadets
also took aim and also started firing.”

The footage showed many of the soldiers fleeing the scene as the
attack took place, their rifles slung on their shoulders.
Questions were already being raised in the Israeli media why more
did not engage the attacker.

Rescue workers said about 15 wounded people were strewn on the
street at the promenade as ambulances raced to the scene. The
Israeli military regularly takes soldiers on educational tours of
Jerusalem, including the Armon Hanatziv vantage
point.

Channel 10 television said the soldiers’ tour guide also fired at
the assailant.

As a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem, which
Israel considers part of its capital but the world does not, the
truck driver would carry an Israeli identity card and be able to
move freely through all of the city.