WarSclerotic

A Palestinian man in a private vehicle hit the five, who included a bicycle rider and a pedestrian, as they stood on a sidewalk. According to initial reports, the man then emerged from the vehicle with a butcher’s knife and attempted to stab passersby, but was swiftly shot and incapacitated by a Border Policeman and a Light Rail security guard at the scene.

The five victims suffered light-to-moderate injuries. They were treated at the scene by paramedics before being evacuated to the hospital.

The attacker was seriously injured. He, too, was taken to the hospital. Police identified him as a Palestinian man in his twenties from East Jerusalem.

“The swift and determined response stopped the attack as it was beginning and prevented more innocents from being injured,” said Moshe Edri, a regional police commander.

The attack took place near a Border Police base on Shimon Hatzadik Street, on the line separating West and East Jerusalem.

“A young man rammed his car (into pedestrians), and then got out and tried to stab people” before being shot and wounded, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement.

Friday’s attack mirrored a spate of similar assaults on Israelis involving cars late last year, in the same part of Jerusalem.

In late October a Palestinian from east Jerusalem, who had served prison time for terror activities, slammed his car into a train platform in that part of the city, killing a baby girl and a young woman from Ecuador.

Two weeks later, a Palestinian man rammed his car into a crowded train platform in East Jerusalem and then attacked people with an iron bar, killing one person and injuring 13. Both attackers were shot by police and died of their wounds.

Since then, there had been a relative lull in tensions in the city, though last week, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and his bodyguard leapt from a car and apprehended an 18-year-old Palestinian after he stabbed an Israeli near City Hall.

Friday’s attack raised tensions in Jerusalem during the Purim holiday, and came a day after the Palestinian leadership said it would end security cooperation with the Jewish state in the West Bank.

Following the attack Barkat said that security in the capital would be heightened but that Purim events would go forward as planned.

“We will not allow terrorism to disrupt our daily lives and we will continue to fight it without compromise,” he stated.

Barkat also praised the response of security forces at the scene, “who brought the incident to a swift end and prevented further harm.”

The terrorist group Hamas praised the attack which it said in a statement was a “heroic action” and “a natural response to Israeli crimes.”

Officials say it is difficult to prevent such attacks, which appear to be carried out by “lone wolf” assailants who are not thought to be dispatched by a terrorist organization.

AP and AFP contributed to this report