Police and Border Police Monday morning captured the suspect in Saturday night’s hit-and-run terrorist attack that wounded four police officers, including a 20-year-old woman, with light to moderate injuries.
He is about 30 years old and is from the Shuafat neighborhood in northern Jerusalem.
The attack in eastern Jerusalem capped off a day of terror that spread from Ma’aleh Adumim to the capital.
The hit-and-run terrorist was driving his Skoda car from the area of the Mount of Olives (Har HaZeitim) when he saw a group of policemen on the sidewalk. The driver drove over the curb, hit the victims and escaped as police shot at the vehicle, which later was found abandoned.
Other Arabs joined the culture of violence by throwing rocks at rescue vehicle and at the car of Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, who arrived at the scene. He was not injured, but his car sustained light damage, as did the motorcycle of a volunteer rescue worker.
Earlier in the day, approximately two dozen Arabs were injured by police trying to disperse riots in Jerusalem’s A-Tur neighborhood, which the past several months has been a hotbed of terrorist activity.
The riots followed two stabbing attacks by Jerusalem and Palestinian Authority terrorists. Police killed a terrorist, reportedly 17 years old, near Maaleh Adumim after he stabbed a Border Police officer in the neck. He is being treated in the hospital for light to moderate wounds.
The family of the attacker claimed that the terrorist really was not a terrorist and did not attack police, who they said “executed” him.
A state of mourning was called in A-Tur, and a general strike left schools and institutions closed.
Continuing widespread violence in eastern Jerusalem has included more rock-throwing attacks on the city’s light rail system. Violence is fueled by terrorist cells and also by Palestinian Authority media that repeatedly describe Arab attackers as innocents.
WAFA, the official Palestinian Authority news site, reported Sunday that Mohammed abu Ghannam, the father of the 17-year-old killed in the incident near Maaleh Adumim, “expressed his belief that the Israeli version of such incidents is intended to acquit Israeli soldiers and whitewash their crimes.”
The father said, “One who attempts to stab soldiers doesn’t wield a large knife and start running toward armed soldiers.”
He did not offer a different method of how terrorists attack with a knife.