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 ...
identified as Hussam Taysir Duwait (also referred to as Hussam Duwiyat, Hossam Dawyyat, or erroneously as Jabr Duwait) attacked several cars on
Jaffa Road
Jaffa Road ( he, רחוב יפו, Rehov Yaffo; ar, شارع يافا) is one of the longest and oldest major streets in Jerusalem. It crosses the city from east to west, from the Old City walls to downtown Jerusalem, the western portal of Jer ...
in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
in a
vehicle-ramming attack
A vehicle-ramming attack is an assault in which a perpetrator deliberately rams a vehicle into a building, crowd of people, or another vehicle. According to Stratfor Global Intelligence analysts, this attack represents a relatively new militan ...
using a
front-end loader
A loader is a heavy equipment machine used in construction to move or load materials such as soil, rock, sand, demolition debris, etc. into or onto another type of machinery (such as a dump truck, conveyor belt, feed-hopper, or railroad car).
...
(erroneously referred to as a
bulldozer
A bulldozer or dozer (also called a crawler) is a large, motorized machine equipped with a metal blade to the front for pushing material: soil, sand, snow, rubble, or rock during construction work. It travels most commonly on continuous track ...
in the media), killing three people and wounding at least thirty other
pedestrians
A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, whether walking or running. In modern times, the term usually refers to someone walking on a road or Road surface, pavement, but this was not the case historically.
The meaning of pedestrian is dis ...
, before being shot to death. Israeli government spokesman
Mark Regev
Mark Regev ( he, מארק רגב; born 1960) is a former Israeli diplomat and civil servant who is currently the chair of the Abba Eban Institute for Diplomacy and Foreign Relations at Reichman University. Between June 2020 and April 2021, he ser ...
said that an inquiry indicated the attacker had been acting alone. A motive for the attack could not immediately be determined, but police at the scene referred to the incident as a
terrorist attack
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
. Three copycat attacks have occurred since then.
This attack was the second incident in 2008 in which an
Israeli Arab
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 ...
committed a violent act in west Jerusalem while carrying an Israeli ID Card (allowing for freedom of movement and travel throughout Israel), the first being the
Mercaz HaRav massacre
The 2008 Jerusalem yeshiva attack was a mass shooting attack that occurred on 6 March 2008, in which a lone Palestinian gunman shot multiple students at the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva, a religious school in Jerusalem, after which the gunman himself w ...
in early March 2008. On April 7, 2009, Duwait's house was demolished as a declared deterrent against future attacks, the first such demolition since 2005.
The attack
Preliminary investigations suggest the
Caterpillar 966
Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths).
As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Sym ...
front-end
loader
Loader can refer to:
* Loader (equipment)
* Loader (computing)
** LOADER.EXE, an auto-start program loader optionally used in the startup process of Microsoft Windows ME
* Loader (surname)
* Fast loader
* Speedloader
* Boot loader
** LOADER.COM ...
was taken from a nearby construction site on
Jaffa Road
Jaffa Road ( he, רחוב יפו, Rehov Yaffo; ar, شارع يافا) is one of the longest and oldest major streets in Jerusalem. It crosses the city from east to west, from the Old City walls to downtown Jerusalem, the western portal of Jer ...
. The perpetrator then drove the vehicle against traffic, before hitting an Egged public bus near the city's old Central Bus Station. The impact flipped the bus onto its side, hitting nearby vehicles and pedestrians. The perpetrator, Hussam Taysir Duwait, was also heard yelling "
Allahu Akbar
Allah (; ar, الله, translit=Allāh, ) is the common Arabic word for God. In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from '' al- ilāh'', which means "the god", an ...
" during the attack. After a traffic policewoman had shot the driver, the vehicle came to a halt but then started again and crushed another car, killing another person.
At the point when the vehicle had stopped for the first time, three men had climbed up to the cabin: A 20-year-old off-duty soldier from Jerusalem, Moshe Plesser, who had recently enlisted at the
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...
, an unnamed policeman, and Oron Ben Shimon, an armed civilian and manager of a regional security firm. According to Oron, while he was struggling with the driver inside the cabin, trying to get his feet off the accelerator and take over the wheel, he shouted at the soldier to shoot the driver. The soldier then grabbed Oron's handgun and killed Duwait with three shots to the head at point blank range. After the vehicle had immediately come to a halt again, motorcycle policeman Eli Mizrahi climbed the cabin and fired two more shots.
Haaretz quotes the soldier as saying that "I got closer to the bulldozer, the whole time looking for my weapon to shoot him." Coincidentally, the soldier is the brother-in-law of Captain David Shapira, the paratrooper officer who shot and killed the perpetrator in the
Mercaz HaRav massacre
The 2008 Jerusalem yeshiva attack was a mass shooting attack that occurred on 6 March 2008, in which a lone Palestinian gunman shot multiple students at the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva, a religious school in Jerusalem, after which the gunman himself w ...
.
The moments during which the perpetrator was shot and killed have been filmed from at least two different angles, which accounts for the greater level of directly available descriptive detail in comparison to the original attack which is documented only through eyewitnesses on the scene as well as images that were taken mostly after the incident itself.
One witness is quoted as saying that Duwait was armed and 'shooting at a police officer'.
Fatalities
* Batsheva Unterman, 33, of Jerusalem – a kindergarten teacher, and the wife of Ido Unterman, grandson of former Chief rabbi
Isser Yehuda Unterman
Isser Yehuda Unterman ( he, איסר יהודה אונטרמן,
19 April 1886 – 26 January 1976) was the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1964 until 1972.
* Elizabeth Goren-Friedman, 54, of Jerusalem – originally of
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
, Elizabeth Goren-Friedman worked as a teacher in a school for the blind.
* Jean Relevy, 68, of Jerusalem – an air-conditioner technician who lived in the
Gilo
Gilo ( he, גִּלֹה) is an Israeli settlement in south-western East Jerusalem, with a population of 30,000, mostly Jewish inhabitants. Although it is located within the Jerusalem Municipality, it is widely considered a settlement, because a ...
neighborhood.
The perpetrator
Duwait, a 32-year-old father of two from the
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 ...
Israeli identity card
Teudat Zehut ( he, תעודת זהות ''t'udát zehút''; ar, بطاقة هوية ''biṭāqat huwiyyah'') is the Israeli compulsory identity document issued by the Ministry of Interior, as prescribed in the ''Identity Card Carrying and Display ...
, and was hired by a local construction firm for the
Jerusalem Light Rail
Jerusalem Light Rail ( he, הרכבת הקלה בירושלים, ''HaRakevet HaKala Birushalayim'', ar, قطار القدس الخفيف, ''Qiṭār Al-Quds Al-Khafīf'') is a light rail system in Jerusalem. Currently, the Red Line is the o ...
.
Three Palestinian organizations took responsibility for the attack: the
Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades
The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades () is a coalition of Palestinian armed groups in the West Bank. The organization has been designated as a terrorist organization by Israel, the European Union, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and the United States.
L ...
, the Galilee Freedom Battalion ( he, גדודי חופשיי הגליל), and the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ( ar, الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين, translit=al-Jabhah al-Sha`biyyah li-Taḥrīr Filasṭīn, PFLP) is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist and revolutionary soci ...
. Despite the Palestinian claims of responsibility, Israeli police chief Dudi Cohen said the attacker appeared to be acting alone and that "it looks as if it was a spontaneous act." Some two hours after the attack, a
Hamas
Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...
spokesman said that the attack is "a natural response to Israeli aggression." Nevertheless, he stressed that Hamas did not know who was behind the attack.
Shimon Kokos, the lawyer of the perpetrator's family, said that Hussam "had not belonged to any militant organization and may have acted out of temporary insanity" and that, "had enot been killed during his rampage, it is doubtful whether he would have been judged fit to stand trial." "My son never spoke of plans to carry out such an attack, if he had I would have tried to prevent it," Duwait's father, Tayseer told The Media Line as police officers were about to question him.
A Jewish ex-girlfriend of Duwait, commented that "he really didn't hate Jews. The fact is that he was with me. It's insanity, but the motivation was not nationalist" and also that his bad temper may have been related to his " mokinga lot of drugs." Other people have gone on the record as well alleging regular drug abuse by Duwait, one neighbour saying that he was "a drug addict .. He'd shoot up all the time. ..He was really just a junkie."
Aftermath
Israeli Border Guard officers ordered the Duwait family to remove the mourning tent they erected in the neighborhood for their son. A Border Guard patrol passing through the area identified the construction of the tent and ordered the family to remove it. The family then disassembled the tent without any noted resistance. Two days after the attack, defense minister
Ehud Barak
Ehud Barak ( he-a, אֵהוּד בָּרָק, Ehud_barak.ogg, link=yes, born Ehud Brog; 12 February 1942) is an Israeli general and politician who served as the tenth prime minister from 1999 to 2001. He was leader of the Labor Party until Jan ...
ordered the
demolition
Demolition (also known as razing, cartage, and wrecking) is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down of buildings and other artificial structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a ...
of Duwait's and Alaa Abu Dhein's (perpetrator of the Mercaz HaRav massacre) houses, as a stated deterrent against future attacks. Following the supreme court rejection of appeals by Duwait's family, his home was razed on April 7, 2009, the first such demolition since a military commission recommended against such action in 2005. During the demolition, police shot dead a Palestinian motorist who ran over and injured three police officers.
Bulldozer attack of July 22
On July 22, another east Jerusalem Arab resident, Ghassan Abu Tir, rammed his bulldozer (this time it was a smaller
backhoe loader
A backhoe loader, also called a loader backhoe, loader excavator, digger in layman's terms, or colloquially shortened to backhoe within the industry, is a heavy equipment vehicle that consists of a tractor-like unit fitted with a loader-style sh ...
) into cars and a bus on King David street in Jerusalem. He wounded 24 people, including one whose leg was partially severed. He was subsequently killed by a fusillade of gunfire from a Border Policeman and an armed pedestrian. The attack was seen as a copycat act of to the July 2 attack, causing fears of repeated copycat acts in an emerging new terrorist tactic of vehicle ramming attacks. The attack happened just down the road from the hotel where Democratic Presidential nominee
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
was due to stay as part of a multi-country visit.
BMW attack
On September 22, 2008, Qassem Mughrabi, a resident of East Jerusalem, drove a black BMW into a group of off-duty soldiers standing on a Jerusalem street injuring 19. Mughrabi was subsequently shot dead by one of the soldiers. Police spokesmen asserted the event was a terrorist attack, not an accident.
March 5, 2009, attack
Two police officers were lightly wounded in Jerusalem when an Arab bulldozer driver overturned their police car and rammed it into a bus, before being fatally shot by police and an armed taxi driver. The attack occurred around 1 P.M. near the
Malha
Malha is a neighborhood in southwest Jerusalem, between Pat, Ramat Denya and Kiryat Hayovel in the Valley of Rephaim. Before 1948, Malha was an Arab village known as al-Maliha ( ar, المالحة).
History Antiquity
Excavations in Malha revea ...
shopping mall, on Menachem Begin Boulevard in southern Jerusalem. Police said that a copy of the
Koran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing.: ...
had been found in the bulldozer after the attack, and that the driver had not been carrying any identification. Israel Police and local residents later identified the man as Marei Radaydeh, a West Bank construction worker in his mid-20s who lived with his family in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of
Beit Hanina
Beit Hanina ( ar, بيت حنينا , he, בית חנינא) is an Arab Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem. It is on the road to Ramallah, eight kilometers north of central Jerusalem, at an elevation of 780 meters above sea level. Bei ...
. Radaydeh was married and had a daughter.
Hamas
Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...
praised the attack, calling it a "natural response" to Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes in Arab East Jerusalem and to Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip.
Official reactions
;Involved parties
:
*
Prime Minister of Israel
The prime minister of Israel ( he, רֹאשׁ הַמֶּמְשָׁלָה, Rosh HaMemshala, Head of the Government, Hebrew acronym: he2, רה״מ; ar, رئيس الحكومة, ''Ra'īs al-Ḥukūma'') is the head of government and chief exec ...
,
Ehud Olmert
Ehud Olmert (; he, אֶהוּד אוֹלְמֶרְט, ; born 30 September 1945) is an Israeli politician and lawyer. He served as the 12th Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009 and before that as a cabinet minister from 1988 to 1992 and ...
mentioned that "There is no way to fence-off the Arabs of east Jerusalem and every home of a potential terrorist," and that "We need to stop the terror attacks carried out by east Jerusalem Arabs, and if that must be done through means of deterrence or the demolition of a home – then so be it." B'Tselem has condemned the plans as "illegal collective punishment."
*
President of Israel
The president of the State of Israel ( he, נְשִׂיא מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, Nesi Medinat Yisra'el, or he, נְשִׂיא הַמְדִינָה, Nesi HaMedina, President of the State) is the head of state of Israel. The posi ...
,
Shimon Peres
Shimon Peres (; he, שמעון פרס ; born Szymon Perski; 2 August 1923 – 28 September 2016) was an Israeli politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the ninth president of ...
expressed pride in the speedy actions of the soldier who fired at and killed the attacker.
:
*
Palestinian National Authority
The Palestinian National Authority (PA or PNA; ar, السلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية '), commonly known as the Palestinian Authority and officially the State of Palestine,
: Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud Abbas ( ar, مَحْمُود عَبَّاس, Maḥmūd ʿAbbās; born 15 November 1935), also known by the kunya Abu Mazen ( ar, أَبُو مَازِن, links=no, ), is the president of the State of Palestine and the Palestinian Natio ...
condemned the attack stating "We want peaceful solutions through negotiations."
*
Hamas
Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...
government in the Gaza Strip praised the attack.
;Supranational
* :
Ban Ki Moon
Ban Ki-moon (; ; born 13 June 1944) is a South Korean politician and diplomat who served as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations between 2007 and 2016. Prior to his appointment as secretary-general, Ban was his country's Minister ...
,
United Nations Secretary General
The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or SG) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the six principal organs of the United Nations.
The role of the secretary-ge ...
expressed condolences to the relatives of the dead victims, and wishes for a speedy recovery to the injured.
;International
* :
British Foreign Secretary
The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen ...
David Miliband
David Wright Miliband (born 15 July 1965) is the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the International Rescue Committee and a former British Labour Party politician. He was the Foreign Secretary from 2007 to 2010 and the Member of P ...
condemned the attack, calling it a "horrific act."
* : President of the United States,
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
spoke over the phone with Israeli PM
Ehud Olmert
Ehud Olmert (; he, אֶהוּד אוֹלְמֶרְט, ; born 30 September 1945) is an Israeli politician and lawyer. He served as the 12th Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009 and before that as a cabinet minister from 1988 to 1992 and ...
to express his condolences with the people of Israel, for the "murderous terrorist attack."
See also
*
2014 Jerusalem tractor attack
A terrorist ramming attack occurred on 4 August 2014, when a man drove an excavator type of tractor out of a construction site, injuring several pedestrians and killing one man before ramming the tractor into a public bus, overturning the bus a ...
*
Marvin Heemeyer
Marvin John Heemeyer (October 28, 1951 – June 4, 2004) was an American automobile muffler repair shop owner who, following a dispute with town officials, demolished numerous buildings with a modified bulldozer in Granby, Colorado, on June 4, ...
*
List of terrorist incidents, 2008
This is a timeline of incidents in 2008 that have been labelled as "terrorism" and are not believed to have been carried out by a government or its forces (see state terrorism and state-sponsored terrorism).
Guidelines
*To be included, en ...
*
Jerusalem BMW attack
On 22 September 2008, a Palestinians, Palestinian drove a BMW saloon car into a group of civilians and off-duty Israeli Ground Forces, soldiers in a terrorist Vehicle-ramming attack, ramming attack in Jerusalem, injuring 19 people. Stratfor Global ...
*
Israeli casualties of war
Israeli casualties of war, in addition to those of Israel's nine major wars, include 9,745 soldiers and security forces personnel killed in "miscellaneous engagements and terrorist attacks", which includes security forces members killed durin ...
*
Palestinian political violence
Palestinian political violence refers to acts of violence perpetrated for political ends in relation to the State of Palestine or in connection with Palestinian nationalism. Common political objectives include self-determination in and soverei ...
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...