JERUSALEM: A Palestinian driver rammed a bulldozer into a police car on a highway yesterday, wounding two officers and smashing the car against a bus before he was shot dead.
Israeli police and Palestinian residents identified the driver as Marei Radaydeh, a West Bank construction worker in his mid-20s who lived with his family in the Arab East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina.
Police said the two officers were lightly hurt. The bus, which was parked at the intersection, was empty.
No Palestinian group claimed responsibility for the incident.
Riyad Al-Malki, Palestinian information minister, described the incident as a “traffic accident,” and called for an investigation into why the man was shot.
But Hamas said the incident was a “natural response” to Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem and to the Jewish state’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The incident came amid a new surge in fighting in Gaza. An Israeli airstrike early yesterday killed two Islamic Jihad fighters and wounded another, bringing to four the number of group members killed by Israel in less than 24 hours and drawing retaliatory rocket fire at Israel.
Islamic Jihad said the three men were returning together to their homes in the Mughazi refugee camp in central Gaza after a night spent on patrol along the Gaza-Israel border when they were targeted.
Later yesterday three rockets fired from Gaza landed in empty ground in southern Israel, the military said. There were no reports of casualties.
