Subscribe to Print Edition | Thu., July 24, 2008 Tamuz 21, 5768 | | Israel Time: 02:31 (EST+7)
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Bulldozer driver rampages in copycat attack, injuring 24
By Jonathan Lis and Avi Isacharoff

A bulldozer driver went on a rampage in central Jerusalem yesterday for the second time this month, injuring 24 people, one of them fairly seriously. Bulldozer driver Ghassan Abu-Tir, 22, of East Jerusalem, was shot to death by a civilian and a Border Police officer who were on the scene.

The rampage was reminiscent of the attack on Jerusalem's Jaffa Road three weeks ago, which left three people dead.
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Investigators say that Abu-Tir left a construction site in the Yemin Moshe neighborhood around 2 P.M., in order to crush vehicles and passersby. He came down Washington Street and turned onto King David Street, close to the Kind David Hotel.

Abu-Tir rammed into a No. 13 bus several times, trying to flip it - as the last bulldozer operator did to a city bus. Bus driver Avi Levy managed to escape by swerving onto Mapu Street, but not before Abu-Tir shattered many of the bus's windows and almost struck Levy in the head with the bulldozer's shovel.

Abu-Tir proceeded to attack four cars, flipping one of them over. The driver from the overturned car, a well-known Jerusalem lawyer named Yehoshua Kramer, had got out a moment earlier, after his car was hit by another vehicle fleeing the terrorist. He was run over by the bulldozer, and had to have his leg amputated below the knee.

"The bulldozer went on zig-zagging the length of Kind David Street," Jerusalem District Police chief Aharon Franco said later. "It hit a total of five vehicles."

A civilian passerby, Yaki Asael, of the West Bank settlement Susya, realized immediately that a terrorist attack was in progress, and shot the rampaging driver and killed him.

A Border Police officer, Amal Ghanem, then fired additional shots to make sure he was dead.

"I was a few meters from the scene," Ghanem said afterward. "I saw civilians fleeing and heard two shots. I came running. I saw a bulldozer and several overturned vehicles. I understood immediately this was a copycat rampage. I fired at the tractor from behind, and then fired from the front. Then I tried to open the door to make sure the terrorist had been neutralized. The doors were locked from the inside. I climbed up, broke the window and then opened the door. After I made sure the terrorist was dead, I climbed down."

Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski, who is a trained combat medic, was among the first to arrive on the scene, and administered first aid to the lightly hurt bus passengers.

Yesterday's terror attack in the capital was the fourth by an East Jerusalem resident in the past four months. Police have predicted that the nature of terror attacks would change as the separation fence around Jerusalem makes it harder for terror groups to smuggle bombers into the city. Palestinian suicide bombers have been replaced by terrorists with Israeli identity cards and no blatant affiliation to any organization, and guns, knives, and bulldozers have taken the place of bombs.
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