A Palestinian who may be linked to ISIS rammed his speeding truck into a group of Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem Sunday, killing four people and wounding 15 others before being shot dead in one of the deadliest attacks in a year-long campaign of violence, Israeli police said.
Five people were arrested Sunday -- including the assailant's father and brother -- in connection with the attack.
"This is part of the same ongoing battle against the global scourge of terrorism," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. "We can only fight it together, but we'll fight it."
Netanyahu said the truck's driver had been identified and appeared to be "a supporter of the Islamic State." Speaking at the scene of the slaughter, Netanyahu added there "definitely could be a connection" between Sunday's horrific attack and similar ISIS truck attacks that took place in France and Germany in recent months.
Images on social media showed some Palestinians handing out sweets to children in celebration of the attack.
Leah Schreiber, a tour guide escorting the soldiers, said she saw the truck accelerate and jump the curb, plowing into uniformed troops who had just exited their bus.
“It took a few seconds to understand what was happening,” Schreiber said. “That this was a terror attack.”
Graphic surveillance video from the scene shows a large white Mercedes-Benz truck careening into the soldiers and then rapidly backing up in circles, running over the wounded, as the soldiers fled.
Eitan Rod, an armed tour guide, told Israel’s Army Radio that he was chatting with several officers when he saw the truck roaring toward him. He dived onto the grass.
“I saw the truck start to reverse and then I already understood that this was not an accident,” he said. “I felt that my pistol was still on me, so I ran up to him and started emptying my clip. He went in reverse and again drove over the injured.”
Rod told Israeli television that he wondered why army officers at the scene did not immediately open fire. He blamed Israeli military authorities, who last week convicted a soldier of manslaughter in the killing of an unarmed Palestinian assailant in Hebron as he lay wounded.
Israeli army spokesmen, however, countered the claim of hesitancy by releasing a video of a soldier describing how he fired his rifle at the driver, who was shot dead in his truck.
Chen Lendi Sharon, a paramedic with the Magen David Adom emergency service, said he arrived to a chaotic scene, with wounded soldiers trapped under the truck.
Police chief Roni Alsheich said there was no warning before the attack.
“You don’t need more than two to three seconds to find a terrorist target. The soldiers at the scene reacted immediately and killed the attacker,” he said.
Rescue workers said three women and a man were killed in the attack. Israel later identified them as Lt. Erez Orbach, Lt. Shira Tzur, Lt. Shir Hajaj and Lt. Yael Yekutiel.
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