Shocking moment ISIS lorry ploughs into soldiers and kills four in Israel terror attack, as first pictures of driver emerge
"It is a terrorist attack, a ramming attack," a police spokeswoman said
THIS is the shocking moment an ISIS truck ploughs into a group of Israeli soldiers, killing four and injuring 15, as the first pictures of the driver emerge.
The ISIS-inspired Palestinian drove the lorry into the soldiers in Jerusalem before reversing over the injured.
Today's horrifying attack was captured in CCTV footage that showed panicked civilians fleeing the scene and what appears to be a soldier firing on the cabin.
Security camera footage shown on Israeli Channel 2 TV showed the truck barreling at a high speed off the road and into the crowd of people in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood.
The truck is seen backing up quickly, apparently trying to crush more people, before the terrorist was shot dead.
"There was no sense in that reverse," Leah Schreiber, a witness, told reporters. "He drove backward to crush more people. That was really clear."
'I EMPTIED MY MAGAZINE AT HIM'
A security guard, who was identified only as "A" told Channel 10: "In a split second I looked to my left and saw what I can only describe as a speeding truck which sent me flying." "It was a miracle that my pistol stayed on me.
"I shot at a tyre but realised there was no point as he has many wheels, so I ran in front of the cabin and at an angle I shot at him and emptied my magazine. When I finished shooting, some of the officer cadets also took aim and also started firing."
The footage showed many of the soldiers fleeing the scene as the attack took place, their rifles slung on their shoulders. Questions were already being raised in the Israeli media why more did not engage the attacker.
The targets were officer cadets who were disembarking from a bus that brought them to the Armon Hanatziv promenade, a stone-laden and grass-lined walkway with a panoramic view of the walled Old City.
"It is a terrorist attack, a ramming attack," a police spokeswoman announced on Israel Radio.
Police said the dead, three women and one man, were all in their twenties.
An Israeli bus driver who witnessed the incident said on the radio the truck ploughed into a group of soldiers, and that they fired on the driver, who reversed direction and ran over them again.
'SOLDIERS HESITATED BEFORE FIRING'
The civilian tour guide for the soldiers hit in the Jerusalem truck-ramming blames the “Hebron shooting” case for causing the troops to hesitate during the terror attack.
The tour guide, Eitan Rod, tells reporters outside the Jerusalem hospital where he was treated that the soldiers around him did not open fire at the truck driver immediately.
According to Rod, the Elor Azaria case, in which an IDF soldier was convicted of manslaughter for shooting dead an incapacitated, supine Palestinian assailant, was the reason the soldiers did not react quickly.
The soldiers were cadets in the army’s officer training course, though they reportedly did not come from combat units.
"They shot him, until they neutralised him," said the bus driver, who gave his name only as Moshe.
The Israeli military regularly takes soldiers on educational tours of Jerusalem, including the Armon Hanatziv vantage point.
Channel 10 television said the soldiers' tour guide also fired at the assailant.
The attack is a chilling echo of the Islamist massacres in Nice and a Christmas market in Berlin.
Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza praised the attack.
"We bless this heroic operation resisting the Israeli occupation to force it to stop its crimes and violations against our people," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told Reuters.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat called on residents to be wary but carry on with their everyday life.
"Unfortunately, there is no limit to the cruelty of terrorists who spare no means in killing Jews and disrupting their way of life," he said. "Those who incite and support terror must pay a heavy price."
Construction Minister Yoav Galant has called for the attacker's family to be expelled to Syria.
He told Army Radio: “The price must be demolishing homes, expelling families – even if they are Israeli citizens,” he said, “and revoking citizenship of anyone who is connected to this incident,” he says.
“It is our duty to reach a position where someone who fights against the State of Israel while receiving state benefits will not be here. Not him, not his family,” he adds.
Israel Radio reported the driver was a Palestinian but did not immediately give his name.
A wave of Palestinian street attacks, including vehicle rammings, has largely slowed but not stopped completely since it began in October 2015.
The attack comes amid a more than yearlong wave of Palestinian shooting, stabbing and vehicular attacks against Israelis that has slowed of late. Sunday's incident marks the first Israeli casualties in three months.
Since October 2015, 247 Palestinians, 40 Israelis, two Americans, a Jordanian, an Eritrean and a Sudanese have been killed in a wave of violence, according to an AFP count.