One of the crushed vehicles, with blood on its hood, left by the bulldozer (top-center, background) in central Jerusalem (Flash90)
Three people were killed and 66 injured Wednesday after a bulldozer driver, an Arab resident of Jerusalem, went on a murderous rampage in the main street of the Israeli capital.
The victims were two women -- Elizabeth Goren-Friedman, 54 and Bathsheva Onterman, 33 -- and an elderly man, Zen Raluay, 68.
An off-duty soldier took the gun from an elite policeman at the scene and shot the terrorist dead. In a bizarre coincidence, the soldier, "M" (his name is barred from publication), 18, is the brother-in-law of IDF officer David Shapira, who killed the terrorist in the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva attack.
M was assisted in neutralizing the attacker by another elite policeman.
Zion Shetreet, who witnessed the attack, told Ynet that the "tractor turned into the road very suddenly and started trampling over the cars standing in the stoplight. I started yelling for people to shoot him. I saw a security officer running out of a nearby building and aiming an Uzi at him.
The terrorist reported screamed "Allahu Akhbar" as he carried out his attack.
Police stressed that the incident was definitely a terror attack by Husam Taysir Dwayat, of Sur Bahir, an Arab neighborhood of Jerusalem.
"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.
His relatives said he even had a Jewish girlfriend for two years, and that was when his troubles with the law began. They didn't mention that he was convicted of raping her.
The attack, at the junction of Jaffa Street and Rechov Sha'arei Yisrael near the Mahane Yehuda market, set off a panic in the area. Dozens of people ran through the streets to flee the scene of the attack and a car was dragged several meters by the bulldozer before being crushed under the vehicle. A bus was overturned and lay on its side.
A baby was being treated in Sha'arei Tzedek Hospital and his parents have yet to be located. The baby was pulled out of the car through the side window by a passerby before Bathsheva Onterman's vehicle -- and she -- was crushed when the huge Caterpillar bulldozer reversed onto the front of her car.
The bulldozer was apparently being used for construction work on the Jerusalem light rail project.
"We consider it as a natural reaction to the daily aggression and crimes committed against our people in the West Bank and all over the occupied lands," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told the press.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski were united in calling for the destruction of the murderer's house. They Mayor explained the rationale: "Only by destroying the terrorist's home will we be able to send out a clear message and prevent other youngsters who want to perpetrate terror attacks and kill Jerusalem residents from carrying out their plans," he said at the scene of the attack.
The mayor's daughter was on one of the buses rammed by the attacker, but she was not injured. "To our regret the attackers do not cease coming up with new ways to strike at the heart of the Jewish people here in Jerusalem," added Lupolianski.
In the past, calls for the destruction of the homes of the families of terrorists have rarely been implemented.
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