By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency

Jerusalem ----- July 2, 2008 ....... At first, those in their cars, on motorcycles and passing by on foot thought they were witnessing a traffic accident. It was only as the terrifying screams of terror victims emerged, those being systemically crushed in their cars by a bulldozer, did the public realize that they were in the midst of a terror attack.

At least five people were murdered and 66 wounded this afternoon when a Palestinian bulldozer driver targeted innocent civilians in Jerusalem.

Among the dead were two babies.

 

A half-dozen cars were flattened and others were overturned by the huge Caterpillar. A bus was overturned and another bus was heavily damaged.

The attack took place at the junction of Jaffa Road and Sarei Yisrael Street.

Israel medics said they thought they had evacuated all the injured from the damaged bus but then heard a baby crying. The 5-month-old girl was found stuck under a seat and rushed to a hospital.

As the hours ticked by and no one appeared to claim the baby, it became apparent her mother had been killed. She was later identified as Batsheva Unterman, 33, and social workers went on TV to appeal for information on the child's father.

"This poor, innocent baby is lucky to be alive. The sad thing is she is far too young to comprehend her own tragedy," said Tzipi Lefler, a social worker taking care of the baby.

"People started screaming 'he is running us over, he is running us over,'" said policewoman Elinor Nahum, 22, who was the first to react. She fired at the bulldozer and apparently hitting the terrorist. Another policeman then climbed onto the vehicle and was lightly wounded in a struggle with the attacker.

An off-duty IDF soldier grabbed a gun from a security guard at the scene and shot the terrorist, who yelled"Allah Akhbar" (God is great) before being killed. The soldier was assisted in neutralizing the attacker by Eli Mizrahi, a member of police's elite Yasam anti-terror unit.

The last terror attack to take place in Jerusalem was on March 6, 2008 when Palestinian terrorists murdered eight students at the Jewish Merkaz Harav religious college in Jerusalem. Hamas officials claimed the attack. The terrorist was also shot dead.

Police said the incident was definitely a terror attack, but stressed that they had no specific warning. Three terrorist groups claimed responsibility for the attack, including the Al Aksa Martyrs' Brigade, which is affiliated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement. The other two were the Galilee Freedom Battalion, which is suspected of being affiliated with Hizbullah, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a fringe left-wing terror group.

Israel police said the terrorist, a 30-year-old Palestinian from Arab east Jerusalem, apparently acted alone. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the man was working on a railway project in Jerusalem.

The attack was a departure from terrorists' usual methods, which have consisted of suicide bombings and shooting attacks.

"To our regret the attackers do not cease coming up with new ways to strike at the heart of the Jewish people here in Jerusalem," said Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski, whose daughter was on a bus rammed by the attacker. She was not injured.

Israel called the attack a "senseless act" and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is trying to negotiate a peace accord with Israel, condemned it. In Washington, the White House said President Bush called the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to express his sorrow over the incident.

"I saw people running our way and then the vehicle appeared and it hit us, turning us over," said Maria Stashevsky, a 19-year-old bus passenger from her hospital bed where she was being treated for injuries to her head, legs and back. "People started landing on me and we had to break through the windows to escape. There was blood everywhere. It's a miracle I got out of there."

The mother of one of the babies hurled the child out of the car window to save her as the attacker bore down on their vehicle, and the mother was also injured. The mother of the other baby, Batsheva Unterman, 33, was killed in the assault.

A second dead woman was identified as Elizabeth Goren-Friedman, 54, a dual Austrian - Israel citizen who had lived in Israel for several years, the Austrian Foreign Ministry said. The third victim was a man.

The attacker began his rampage on a street near Jerusalem's central bus station, and then turned onto Jaffa Road — the city's main downtown thoroughfare — crushing everything in his path. At one point, he rammed into the back of a crowded bus, flipping it on its side.

"I was shocked. I saw a guy going crazy. I saw him pick it up like a toy," said Yosef Spielman, who witnessed the attack. "All the people were running. They had no chance."

The attacker was stopped only after a police officer climbed into the Caterpillar's cabin and wrestled with the driver. An off-duty soldier in a blue T-shirt and a special forces officer then jumped on the vehicle and shot the driver dead.

"I ran up the stairs (of the vehicle) and when he was still driving like crazy and trying to harm civilians, I fired at him twice more and, that's it, he was neutralized," said Eli Mizrahi, the anti-terror unit officer.

Injured people sat dazed on the ground amid piles of broken glass, blood stains and motionless bodies covered in plastic. A rescue worker stroked the hair of an elderly pedestrian, and a loved one raised the bleeding leg of a woman outside the overturned bus. Paramedics evacuated screaming babies into ambulances.

The attack took place in front of a building housing the offices of The Associated Press and other media outlets. BBC footage captured the terror attack and the shootout as onlookers screamed in horror.

While BBC Online currently covers the story "Bulldozer rampage hits Jerusalem," this was not the original headline reported HonestReporting.com "Offering a glimpse into the BBC's warped journalism, the initial headline read "Israel bulldozer driver shot dead".

"That this terror attack took place opposite Jerusalem Capital Studios, the local headquarters for many international media outlets, including BBC, Sky News and CNN, ensured that footage and coverage were available almost immediately. The BBC's very own correspondent Tim Franks even witnessed much of the incident from his office window. The BBC can have no excuse for not having the basic facts of the story in front of them from the very beginning," said HonestReporting.com

Cassia Pereira, office manager for AP's Jerusalem bureau, watched the attack outside her window.

"I saw him but it was too late and there was nothing to do," she said, tears in her eyes. "I was in panic. I couldn't say a word."

In the wake of the attack, Israeli media were filled with demands from hard-line Israelis to take steps against Jerusalem's Palestinians - expelling the families of attackers, destroying their houses and refusing to employ them.

About two-thirds of Jerusalem's 700,000 residents are Jews, and the rest are Palestinians who came under Israeli control when Israel captured their part of the city in 1967.

Though Jews and Arabs have little social interaction, Palestinians perform much of the city's blue-collar work and the sides frequently come into contact. In contrast to West Bank Palestinians, Arab residents of Jerusalem have full freedom to work and travel throughout Israel. Many Jerusalem Arabs work in the construction industry.

Jerusalem City Hall spokesman Gidi Schmerling said all east Jerusalem residents who work in construction for the city must pass a police screening. He said Dwayat worked for a private construction firm. The contractor who employed him could not be reached for comment.

The terror groups claiming responsibility included the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, which is loosely affiliated with Abbas' Fatah movement, as well as the Galilee Freedom Battalion, suspected of being affiliated with Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a fringe militant group.

Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip and is currently maintaining a fragile cease-fire with Israel, said it did not carry out the attack but nevertheless praised it. "We consider it as a natural reaction to the daily aggression and crimes committed against our people," said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.

Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said, "We condemn any attacks that target civilians, whether Israelis or Palestinians."

"I saw the bulldozer smash the car with its shovel. He smashed the guy sitting in the driver's seat," said Yaakov Ashkenazi, an 18-year-old seminary student.

"He tried to run over anything that moves," said Sami Grossman, a paramedic with the Zaka Search and Rescue service, who first thought that the whole thing was one big traffic accident, but who quickly ditched his motorcycle when the bulldozer driver turned towards him.

Esther Valencia, a 52-year-old pedestrian said she barely escaped the carnage. "He almost hit me. Someone pushed me out of the way at the last moment. It was a miracle that I got out of there."

Sixteen-year-old Eyal Lang Ben-Hur was in a bus when the driver yelled out, "Get out of the vehicle! Everyone out!" People fled in a panic, he said, and the bus was hit an instant later.

Asaf Shalev, who was near the scene of the attack, told The Jerusalem Post that he heard about "an accident" and ran to the area. He described a path of destruction" leading from the construction site, and numerous policemen "examining the bulldozer."

Among the many comments of anger wrapped around the many YouTube videos of the terror attack, was one statement coming from a citizen of Jordan who said that he was ashamed of the Muslim who carried out the attack and sent condolences to the families in Israel.

"Not all Muslims are murderers," he said. "I and my family want no association with this type of racist hatred. Many Arabs and Muslims want peace and it is time that we began to confront those Muslims who make us appear like barbarians."

The above news content was edited and SEO optimized in New York for the Internet by the Leyden Communications Group.

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