Tensions Rise In Israel After Jerusalem Bulldozer Terror Attack

A Palestinian construction worker crashed his bulldozer into a bus and sent a police car flying in the air in Jerusalem as tensions escalated following fresh Israeli air strikes on Palestinian militants.

The worker wounded two policemen before he was shot and killed by the officers who were in the car he rammed. There were no other injuries.

Overnight the Israeli air force struck a group of Palestinian militants, killing two. They were attacked after they fired an anti-tank missile towards an army patrol along Israel’s border with Gaza, the army spokesman’s office said in a statement.

On Wednesday night two other militants, also from Islamic Jihad, were targeted for assassination in an Israeli air strike that killed one and seriously injured the other.

The two Israeli targeted killings were the first since a massive operation into Gaza by Israel to halt rocket-fire into the country ended in mid January.

Abu Ahmed, an Islamic Jihad spokesman in Gaza vowed revenge.

“Our rockets and our resistance will not stop,” he said. “We know where and when we will take revenge for these crimes.”

A taxi driver identified by the first name of Dor said he witnessed the bulldozer attack and was the first to shoot towards the Palestinian bulldozer driver.

“I saw the police car fly into the air. He flipped it over twice, then continued dragging it toward a bus that was stuck in traffic,” he told Israel Radio adding he had fired four shots at the Palestinian and wounded him.

“Then a policeman came with his M-16 and finished him off finally,” he said.

It was the third such incident in the city in the past eight months. In the first one, in July, three bystanders and dozens other were wounded before the attacker was shot to death. In September the attacker was also shot after driving into a group of soldiers. Both men were residents of traditionally Arab east Jerusalem, Palestinians who have Israeli identification cards, but are not citizens.

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