Palestinian rams car into Jerusalem bus stop, shot dead

A Palestinian attacker drove a car into Israelis at a Jerusalem bus stop on Monday injuring 14 people before being shot dead, police and rescue services said.

"Terrorist attack at the entrance of Jerusalem minutes ago," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld tweeted. "Terrorist drove vehicle into bus stop at entrance of city. Terrorist shot at scene."

Police said the Palestinian assailant, 21-year-old Abdul Mohsen Hassouna from Beit Hanina in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, had died, while Israel's medical services said none of the victims' injuries were life-threatening.

However, a baby aged just over a year was seriously hurt and taken to the Hadassah hospital, a spokesman there said.

Eleven other people were lightly hurt, and another two more seriously.

According to police, the attacker also had an axe inside the car.

Images of the scene showed a car rammed into a bus stop on the sidewalk near the western entrance to the city.

On December 6, Jerusalem saw another ramming attack with three people injured. The 21-year-old Palestinian attacker from east Jerusalem was shot dead by a soldier.

Late Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered that concrete barriers be placed near hundreds of bus stops in Jerusalem to protect people against similar attacks, his office said.
Since October 1, almost daily attacks by Palestinians and clashes with Israeli soldiers have killed 117 on the Palestinian side, 17 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean.

More than half of the Palestinian fatalities have been attackers, while others have been shot dead by Israeli security forces during clashes.

Young Palestinians have grown frustrated with Israel's occupation and the complete lack of progress in peace efforts, in addition to their own fractured leadership.

On Sunday, a 16-year-old Palestinian girl was shot after allegedly trying to carry out a stabbing attack near the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba in the occupied West Bank.
Source: AFP