JERUSALEM: A Palestinian man rammed a minivan into a crowded train platform in east Jerusalem on Wednesday and then attacked people with an iron bar after leaving the vehicle, killing a border policeman and injuring 13 in what authorities called a terror attack before he was shot dead by police.
Hamas group took responsibility for the attack — the second such assault in east Jerusalem in the past two weeks.
Earlier Wednesday, Israeli police had dispersed dozens of masked Palestinians who threw rocks and firecrackers near a contested holy site in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Neighboring Jordan called back the kingdom’s ambassador to Israel for consultations in a gesture of protest over the violence in east Jerusalem.
Police said the motorist slammed his car — a white minivan — into the train platform in east Jerusalem first, backed out and proceeded to drive away, hitting several cars along the way. He then got out of the car and attacked a group of civilians and police officers on the side of the road with a metal bar before he was shot and killed.
Security camera footage appeared to show him darting about a crowded intersection before he was shot. Israeli police said “one person was killed and about a dozen people were injured in the terror attack.”
Police identified the attacker as Ibrahim Al-Akri, a 38-year-old Palestinian, and said he had recently been released from prison after serving time for security offenses.
Hamas said Al-Akri was a member of the group and that his brother was in exile in Turkey after being released in a 2011 prisoner swap. Hamas’ West Bank commander, Saleh Arouri, is based in Turkey.
It said in a statement that Al-Akri, “whose blood watered the land of the occupied holy city of Jerusalem, preferred but to retaliate for the blood of his people and the sacredness of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem.”
Jordan recalls envoy to Israel over Al-Aqsa excesses; car attack kills cop



