Two people, including a six-year-old boy, were killed and five were injured today in an alleged intentional attack in occupied East Jerusalem, official Israeli sources reported, detailing that their Palestinian attacker was also killed on the spot by shots fired by security forces. .
The incident took place in the vicinity of the Jewish settlement of Ramot, where according to the Israeli Police a “suspicious” rammed into a group of people at a bus stop in a “terrorist attack”.
“As a result of the collision, there are two dead and another five injured with varying degrees of injury”detailed a police spokesman, who added that the presence of security forces in the area has been reinforced.
The Israeli Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency medical services confirmed that one of the deceased is a six-year-old boy, who died at the scene of the attack.
On the other hand, the Shaare Tzedek hospital in Jerusalem announced that one of the injured, a man in his 20s, died in the hospital despite attempts to revive him. In addition, a hospital spokesman reported that one of the injured is an eight-year-old boy in critical condition.
Local media identified the attacker as Hussein Qaraqe, a 31-year-old Palestinian resident of occupied east Jerusalem.
In response to this incident, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the attacker’s relatives and acquaintances to be investigated and arrested. The president also announced that his residence would be immediately demolished, a measure commonly used against Palestinian attackers.
From the Gaza Strip, both the Islamist Hamas movement and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (YIP) group celebrated the attack.
“The heroic operation in Jerusalem is the natural response to the crimes of the (Israeli) occupation against the Palestinian people”Hamas said in a statement, highlighting an Israeli raid last Sunday in the occupied West Bank in which five of its militants were killed by Israeli army fire.
Islamic Jihad, for its part, indicated that this attack shows that “the Palestinian people will continue to resist the occupation until its disappearance”.
Today’s incident occurs in an escalation of violence in the region that has left 52 dead so far this year: 43 Palestinians -averaging more than one a day- and nine people on the Israeli side.
This attack follows another on January 27, in which a Palestinian killed seven people in an Israeli settlement in occupied East Jerusalem, the deadliest attack against Israelis in more than a decade.
Like today’s outrage, that attack also came shortly after a bloody Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank that killed 10 Palestinians, including militants and civilians. EFE
Source: Euronews Español
