On 22 September 2008, a Palestinian drove a BMW saloon car into a group of civilians and off-duty

soldiers A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer. Etymology The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...

in a terrorist ramming attack in Jerusalem, injuring 19 people. Stratfor Global Intelligence analysts say this attack represents a new terrorist tactic which is less lethal but could prove more difficult to prevent than

suicide bombing A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout histor ...

Background

The attack was a third in a series of terrorist attacks in Jerusalem involving a new tactic, using vehicles as weapons; the others were the 2 July

2008 Jerusalem bulldozer attack On July 2, 2008, an Arab resident of East Jerusalem identified as Hussam Taysir Duwait (also referred to as Hussam Duwiyat, Hossam Dawyyat, or erroneously as Jabr Duwait) attacked several cars on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem in a vehicle-ramming att ...

and a similar attack with a Backhoe loader on 22 July. The Jerusalem Post has termed them "ramming terror attacks." According to

Stratfor Strategic Forecasting Inc., commonly known as Stratfor, is an American geopolitics publisher and consultancy founded in 1996. Stratfor's business model is to provide individual and enterprise subscriptions to Stratfor Worldview, its online public ...

, the American global intelligence firm, "while not thus far as deadly as suicide bombing", this tactic could prove more difficult to prevent. No single group has claimed responsibility for the incidents.Israel: Vehicle Attacks - A New Militant Tactic?. Stratfor Global Intelligence On 2 July 2008, Husam Tayseer Dwayat, an

Arab Israeli The Arab citizens of Israel are the largest ethnic minority in the country. They comprise a hybrid community of Israeli citizens with a heritage of Palestinian citizenship, mixed religions (Muslim, Christian or Druze), bilingual in Arabic an ...

citizen from the

Sur Baher Sur Baher ( ar, صور باهر, he, צור באהר), also ''Tsur Baher'', is a Palestinian neighborhood on the southeastern outskirts of East Jerusalem. It is located east of Ramat Rachel and northeast of Har Homa. In 2006, Sur Baher had a p ...

neighborhood of

East Jerusalem East Jerusalem (, ; , ) is the sector of Jerusalem that was held by Jordan during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as opposed to the western sector of the city, West Jerusalem, which was held by Israel. Jerusalem was envisaged as a separat ...

drove an earthmover along

Jaffa Jaffa, in Hebrew Yafo ( he, יָפוֹ, ) and in Arabic Yafa ( ar, يَافَا) and also called Japho or Joppa, the southern and oldest part of Tel Aviv-Yafo, is an ancient port city in Israel. Jaffa is known for its association with the b ...

Road in West Jerusalem, slamming into a bus and passing cars. Four people were killed and another 45 were injured. Later that month, on 22 July 2008, Ghassan Abu Tir, from the Umm Tuba neighborhood of

, drove a front-loader into traffic on

King David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

Street in West Jerusalem, slamming into a bus and passing cars. Sixteen people were injured. Patrick Martin, writing in ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' in 2016, discussed this attack as an example of copycat terrorism.

The attack

On 22 September 2008, the perpetrator, Qassem Mughrabi (alt. Qasim al-Mughabi), a 19-year-old Palestinian resident of

Jabal Mukaber Jabel Mukaber ( ar, جبل مكبر, he, ג'בל מוכאבר) is a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood in southern East Jerusalem. It is bordered by East Talpiot to the west, Abu Tor and Silwan to the north and Sur Baher to the south. Jab ...

neighborhood, drove a black BMW saloon into a group of civilians and off-duty soldiers standing on a Jerusalem street. 19 people were injured. Mughrabi was shot dead at the scene by off-duty soldier Lt. Elad Amar. Amar told Army Radio that the attacker "drove towards the soldiers at top speed, plowed onto the traffic island, ran over soldiers and civilians and then continued, ramming into a building. At that point I assessed that it was a terror attack and decided to neutralize the driver so that he wouldn't be able to reverse the car and continue the attack."

The perpetrator

According to the Palestinian Ma'an news agency, Qassem Mughrabi was a member of Hamas. Mughrabi's family denied that the event was a terror attack. Mahmoud Mughrabi, Qassem's father, said his son did not have a driving license and apparently lost control of the car. "My son was murdered, they killed him. He did not carry out a terrorist attack. This was a car accident." However, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said authorities were convinced the attack was politically motivated. "We're 100 percent sure ... he deliberately drove into people," Rosenfeld said. A number of Israeli Members of Parliament called for the demolition of the home of the perpetrator, as a means of discouraging future attacks.

Vehicle ramming as a trend

This was one of a small cluster of terrorist vehicle-ramming attacks in Jerusalem in this period. Articles in New York Magazine, Breitbart News,

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner f ...

, The Times of Israel, and other publications cite this attack as harbingers of the terrorist vehicle-ramming attacks that would occur in many countries during the 2010s.

References

External links

13 Israeli Soldiers Hurt in Palestinian Vehicle Attack
- published on Fox News on 22 September 2008
13 hurt by vehicle attack in Israel; driver killed
- published on USA Today on 22 September 2008
Troops hurt in Jerusalem car attack
- published on Aljazeera on 23 September 2008
17 hurt as terrorist plows car into Jerusalem crowd
- published on