Yet another example of why we carry. . .

[iflyabeech]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 254225.ece

Jerusalem 'bulldozer terrorist' was Palestinian father-of-two Hossam Dawiath


A Palestinian father-of-two has been named as the driver of a bulldozer that careered through Jerusalem today, crushing cars and repeatedly ramming a public bus.

Three people were killed, including the mother of a young baby, when Hossam Dawiath commandeered the bulldozer from the construction site in west Jerusalem, where he worked, and careered the wrong way up the busy Jaffa road.

First of all Dawiath, a 31-year-old resident of the east Jerusalem village of Zur Bahar, drove over several queueing cars, crush them and injuring the people inside.

Then he rammed his heavy construction vehicle into the side of a public bus, tipping it over onto its side, and backed up, ramming the bus several times.

As hundreds of people ran screaming from the scene, dozens of others, including police, soldiers, border guards, security officers and civilians, pulled out their handguns and ran after the bulldozer.

The pursuers opened fire and the bulldozer ground to a halt with the driver slumped forwards over the wheel, apparently dead, said witnesses.

But when three people leapt onto the cab of the construction vehicle, the driver hit the accelerator pedal once more. The bulldozer lurched into life again, careering backwards another 50yds before the three - a young civilian man, a police officer, and a security officer - fired close-range shots onto Dawiath, killing him.

Eli Mizrahi, the black-clad assailant who fired the final shots was one of Jerusalem's SWAT officers, who regularly patrol the city on motorcycles. He described to Times Online how he cocked his gun and tried to approach the bulldozer.

"As I made contact, he started moving forward," said Mr Mizrahi.

"He was crazed, he held the steering wheel, held it close and started driving fast toward Jaffa while ramming into a car near civilians standing by.

"A civilian who was there fired the first shot. I ran, and went up to the steps, and while he was crazed I fired two shots and neutralised him. This is what we were taught in the police force - to be professional and do our job in the best possible way," Mr Mizrahi added.

Police at the scene said that Dawiath had been carrying a blue identity card, showing that he was an Arab worker who was legally employed on a construction site in west Jerusalem. Jerusalem's light railway is under construction nearby.

Police described the incident in a busy city centre street as a terror attack, and said that Dawiath was apparently a disgruntled Palestinian resident of east Jerusalem who had decided on a solitary killing spree. He was a married father of two, and had a criminal record.

The family of Dawaith has already been called in for police questioning, although his father, Tayseer, managed to tell media before he was taken away: "My son never spoke of plans to carry out such an attack, if he had I would have tried to prevent it."

At the scene of the attack, injured people lay on the ground amid piles of broken glass and blood stains on the ground.

Three people died in the attack besides Dawiath, one of them a woman whose baby was found at the scene, blood all over its face. Israel's national rescue service, Magen David Adom, said that 45 people were wounded, three of them seriously.

Emergency services used a mechanical digger to shovel sand over the underside of the bus to absorb petrol leaks and prevent the risk of an explosion.

The scene of attack has been the target of numerous terror atrocities over the years, a busy street where several suicide bombers have detonated explosions aboard buses. A few yards further down the street is the Mahne Yehuda souk, an open air market that was also a repeated target for bombers during the last Palestinian intifada.

Three Palestinian militant groups later claimed responsibility for the attack, but the claims could not be verified. Hamas said that it had no knowledge of the attack.

Police were likening the atrocity to the killings at the Merkaz Harav religious seminary in Jerusalem in March, when an Arab worker embarked on a lone killing spree against his Jewish employers, shooting eight students before he too was shot dead.

Zur Bahar, where Dawiath lived, is adjacent to Jabel Mukaber, where the gunman from the seminary lived.

Hawaith’s attack on Jeruslaem would fuel public distrust over peace overtures to the Palestinians, said Israeli government officials.

"We are trying to convince the people that we need a ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza, and that we need to strengthen Fatah in the West Bank… each attack furthers the public perception that no peace can be established with the Arabs," said an official from Israel’s Foreign Ministry.