A Palestinian driver rammed his car into a crowd of pedestrians at a Jerusalem bus stop on Monday, injuring 14 people, including a 15-month-old baby and an elderly woman, The Times of Israel reported.
Three bystanders– a civilian, a security guard, and a soldier– opened fire on the driver as he exited the vehicle, killing him. Police identified the attacker as Abed el-Muhsen Hassuna from Beit Hanina in eastern Jerusalem, and said that an axe was found in his car.
תמןנות מפיגוע הדריסה בגשר המייתרים בירושלים pic.twitter.com/AXXxBYAgGk
— שי ויספיש (@shai0527) December 14, 2015
After consulting with Barkat and cabinet officials, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the erection of hundreds of barriers at bus stops to prevent more car ramming attacks against pedestrians.
According to the latest figures from Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency medical service, 22 people have been killed and 229 injured in over 140 separate terror attacks since October. Reports by the Middle East Media Research Institute and The New York Times shed light on the incitement fueling the lethal string of stabbings, shootings, and car-rammings against Israeli civilians, including the spread of popular hashtags such as “Slaughtering the Jews” and violent graphics on Palestinian social media.
“One crude cartoon making the rounds on Facebook, including on the official Palestinian TV page before it disappeared late Tuesday, depicts an Israeli soldier as an ape, accompanied by a pig, over a bloodied youth,” The Times wrote. “Another has a close-up of a menacing blade, and is captioned: “This is not difficult. To the closest kitchen, and go in the name of God.” In a second report, the Times highlighted some of the extreme “nationalistic” songs stoking the terror, including pop hits such as “Stab, stab” and “Run Over, Run Over the Settler.”
The violent messages prevalent on Palestinian airwaves and social media are often the echoes of incitement by top political and religious officials. In November, the Palestinian Authority’s official newspaper published an op-ed claiming that Israel was behind the ISIS terror attacks in Paris. A day earlier, the official Facebook page of Fatah posted an image equating Israel with ISIS.
In late October, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said that Israel has been an occupying power since its creation, only two weeks after he claimed that Israel had “executed” a teen terrorist who was actually alive and recovering in an Israeli hospital. A month earlier, Abbas declared that Palestinians would not allow the “filthy feet” of Jews to defile holy places in Jerusalem.
[Photo: Yonatan Sindel / Flash90 ]