Border Police Chief Dead And Thirteen Wounded In Jerusalem Attack

A Palestinian motorist drove onto a crowded train platform on Wednesday in the most recent in a spate of attacks in Jerusalem. Officials said Border Police Chief Inspector Jidaan Asad, 38, died.

Updated — 4:58 P.M.

A Palestinian man drove his van onto a crowded train platform in Jerusalem on Wednesday and then attacked bystanders with an iron bar, killing a border police chief and injuring 13 in the second such attack in two weeks.

Witnesses said that Ibrahim al-Akri, 38, accelerated onto a crowded train platform in East Jerusalem. He then backed out and drove a short distance away before attacking a group of civilians and police officers standing by the side of the road with an iron rod. He was shot dead by police officers at the scene.

Border Police Chief Inspector Jidaan Asad, 38, was killed, said a police spokesman.

Israeli police said that al-Akri was recently released from prison for security-related offenses.

In the wake of his attack, both Islamic Jihad and Hamas claimed that that ak-Akri was a member of their groups. Israeli officials, including cabinet minister Naftali Bennet, have called for arresting any known members of either group as a precautionary measure.

"Abu Mazen [Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas] is the driver of the death car and the terrorists his emissaries," Bennett said."Israel needs to say clearly that the Fatah-Hamas government is a terror organization and we need to act accordingly."

This video captured a scene from the attack. Another video, below, caught the immediate aftermath. Warning, both contain graphic content.

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Only two weeks ago, a similar attack was carried out by Abd al-Rahman Shaloudi, who killed a baby girl and a young woman from Ecuador at a train platform just down the road from Wednesday's attack.

"These two attacks, both in location and in character, are very similar," said Israeli police officer Chaim Azriel, who was at the scene of both attacks. "These lone wolf attacks are very dangerous, and we hope this does not mean they are a trend."

Lone wolf attacks are carried out by people acting on their own initiative, said Azriel, even though they could be members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, or other militant groups.

"These attacks are like a person just deciding on their own one day, poof, to attack. We don't have intelligence and they are hard to stop," said Azriel.

Tensions in Jerusalem have been on the rise in recent weeks, with near-daily clashes focused on the seam lines between the mostly Jewish western part of the city, and the largely Palestinian east. A "day of rage" planned last Friday fizzled out when a rainstorm drenched the city, and sent many home.

"It was a reprieve for everyone," said Muhamed Salem, a shopkeeper near Jerusalem's old city who often has a front-line view of the clashes from his small store. "Our leaders need to start making smarter decisions or this entire city will ignite.

This week, Israeli groups planned on commemorating a week since a Palestinian shot and wounded American-Israeli activist Yehuda Glick in a drive-by attack in Jerusalem. Glick, a prominent activist with the Temple Mount Institute, is at the heart of a contentious debate over who should receive access to the area known to Jews as the Temple Mount, and to Muslims as the Al Aqsa Mosque Complex or Haram al Sharif.

Glick and others have campaigned for Jewish access to the area, and the right to pray there. Palestinians view such visits as a provocation, and they often lead to deadly clashes. In recent weeks, Israeli police closed the area to both Jews and Muslims for the first time in 15 years.

Also inflaming tensions were plans for more than 500 new settlement homes in East Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly travelled to Jordan last week to meet with King Abdullah over rising tensions in the city. Despite the meeting, Jordan announced it would lodge a a formal complaint with the U.N. Security Council over Israeli actions in Jerusalem and its holy sites, a government spokesman said on Wednesday.

The Jordanian prime minister had instructed Jordan's delegation at the United Nations to "lodge an official complaint to the Security Council", Mohammad Al-Momani, government spokesman, told Reuters by telephone.

CONFIRMED:3 #IDF soldiers wounded in attempt to run them over by Palestinian vehicle. Widespread search is in progress to locate the driver

The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) on Wednesday night confirmed that a second vehicular attack had taken place. A freight truck with Palestinian license plates hit the three IDF soldiers, wounding one seriously and two moderately in what he IDF said was a terror attack, the IDF spokesperson's office said.

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