Rock-throwing terrorists from eastern Jerusalem Thursday night ambushed the car of a family that made a wrong turn on the way to their son’s IDF Golani Division swearing-in ceremony.
The soldier’s father suffered light facial wounds after the rock-throwers smashed the windows and windshield of the car, and the family said it was a miracle they were able to escape alive.
The terror began with instructions from the GPS, which does not take into account security dangers and often has taken drivers through dangerous areas.
“It was a near-lynch,” the English word often used in Hebrew to describe a deadly ambush. “I feel that it was a miracle that we escaped,” Ettie Cohen, mother of the soldier, told YNet.
The family was in the area of the Western Wall and was told by the navigating system to make a right turn on what turned out to be road leading to the heart of Wadi Joz, a dangerous neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem, in turmoil following claims from an Arab family that their son has turned into a vegetable after police allegedly hit him with a rubber bullet in a riot.
“I still am in shock over what happened to us.” said Ettie.
The Cohen family is from Ramat Gan, next to Tel Aviv, and is not familiar with the streets of the Old City of Jerusalem.
“We depended on the GPS program that told us to turn right,” she said. “For the first few seconds, everything was okay. Our daughter, who was driving, serves in the intelligence unit of the IDF and knows Arabic. She said, ”Isn’t it funny that everything here is in Arabic,’ and I started to get a bit nervous.
“We were on a narrow street, and people began to look at us as if to say, ‘What are you doing here?’”
The Cohen family soon asked itself the same question, realizing they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“There were two cars in front of us, and suddenly a child, around 12 years old, came up to the window where my husband was sitting…. The child banged on the window while we were driving. All of a sudden, three cars in front of us created a traffic jam by simply stopping without any reason.”
Actually, there was a reason – an ambush.
“Building blocks started flying at us,” she continued.. ”The first one smashed the rear window, and I couldn’t believe what was happening to us. Another one hit the window where my husband was sitting, and he was hurt in the face. The third block smashed the windshield and headrest where a friend of our son was sitting.”
The young girl who was driving “freaked out” for a second but then took control of her senses and slammed her foot on the gas, driving on to the sidewalk and skirting the ambush while Ettie was screaming on the phone to the police.”
When she was finally able to tell the police where they were driving, the officer said, “Don’t drive there. It is dangerous.”
Isn’t that wonderful police protection?
Another police officer told the driver what road to take, and the Cohen family finally got of Wadi Joz, literally with their lives.
Their car was smashed up by blocks and rocks, but Ettie Cohen is happy everyone is in one piece. Her husband is recovering from light facial wounds.
She advises people not to rely on GPS systems in the Old City.
The police said they are beefing up patrols in eastern Jerusalem.
Barbed wire divided Jerusalem after Jordan took possession of the eastern, northern and southern parts of the city in the War for Independence in 1948. Israel removed the barbed wire and united the city in the Six-Day War in 1967.