| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Israel-Palestine-Jordan | |
| Baby killed as Palestinian drives into Jerusalem train stop | |
| 2014-10-23 | |
| A baby was killed and eight people were injured when a car slammed into pedestrians at a Jerusalem light railway stop on Wednesday, emergency services said, in what police described as a "terrorist attack". The driver, whom police identified as Palestinian Adbel Rahman Shaloudi, 21, was shot by police as he tried to flee the scene on foot and was in serious condition in hospital, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, adding he was a resident of Arab East Jerusalem. Video footage aired on Israeli media showed Shaloudi lying on the ground and a plain clothes officer pointing a pistol at him. Two of the injured pedestrians were in serious condition, police said. "We can confirm that this was a terrorist attack. The driver ... is a resident of Silwan and has a terrorist background. He has served time in jail for terror activity," Rosenfeld said. The car was owned by Shaloudi's father, police added. After nightfall, Silwan residents clashed with police, who responded to rocks and petrol bombs with stun grenades.
The incident took place along a main north-south route leading into the centre of Jerusalem, close to the national police headquarters and one of the city's main hospitals at Mount Scopus. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Hamas movement, with whom he has forged a unity government deal, for the attack. He also ordered police to heighten their presence in Jerusalem. Repeated damage caused by Palestinians to the Jerusalem light railway, which links Arab and Jewish neighbourhoods and was once hailed by Israeli authorities as a symbol of coexistence, has put a third of its carriages out of commission. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |