Israellycool

Having already claimed that Qassams fired at Sderot were the actions of “collaborators with Israel”, Hamas are now trying a different approach. Namely the What Qassams? approach.

Islamic Hamas movement said in a statement that Sunday’s rocket attack from Gaza at southern Israel “is an Israeli untrue claim to justify closing Gaza border crossing points.”

The Hamas statement came after Israel Radio’s Arabic service reported that unknown Gaza militants fired a homemade rocket from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip at southern Israel, causing no damages or injuries. No one claimed responsibility for the rocket attack.

The radio quoted Israeli army officials as saying that Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, is fully responsible for Sunday’s rocket attack on southern Israel and might face adverse consequences.

“Announcing from time to time that rockets are still fired from Gaza at Israel, is just an untrue claim to justify keeping Gaza Strip border crossing points with Israel closed,” Hamas said in the statement sent to reporters.

Coming soon: Hamas claims the IDF is firing Qassams at Sderot.

Jameel writes of an “unbelievable coincidence.”

Weeks after a deadly bulldozer attack in Jerusalem, another palestinian has decided to emulate the feat.

A Palestinian bulldozer driver went on a rampage in downtown Jerusalem on Tuesday, wounding at least 16 people, just weeks after a similar attack in the capital left three dead.

One of the wounded was in serious condition and the rest sustained light wounds. They were taken to Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem for treatment.

The driver of the tractor struck a bus and at least five cars before being shot dead by security forces, Jerusalem police said. The attacker was identified as Hassan Abu-Tir, a resident of the Tuba village in East Jerusalem, who carried an Israeli identity card.

Television footage showed an elderly woman being wheeled into an ambulance and rescue personnel assisting visibly shocked passersby. A mother and her 9-month-old son were among the lightly wounded.

The copycat attack occurred on the corner of Keren Hayesdod and King David streets in dowtown Jerusalem, down the road from the hotel where U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama was to be staying later in the day.

I’ll keep you posted on any further developments.

Updates (Israel time)

3:30PM: Israel National News reports that one of the injured is in moderate condition, with an amputated leg. It also reports that minutes after the terrorist’s name was publicized over the radio, a gag order was issued prohibiting it from being disseminated, “apparently because of his family connections with a prominent Hamas family.”

3:32PM: Ynet is reporting at least 18 injured.

3:35PM: Today’s hero who shot dead the terrorist is reportedly 53-year-old Yaki Asael from Susia, an IDF Company Commander (res.), teacher and a farmer, with eight children and six grandchildren.

3:40PM: Latest count: 24 injured

3:43PM: The terrorist, Ghasam Abu-Tir, is a relative of Hamas “lawmaker” Muhammad Abu Tir. Or “Red Beard” for the uninitiated.

3:55PM: In yet another feeling of deja vu, the terrorist was a palestinian with an Israeli ID card, and had a criminal record.

3:58PM: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas:

“We always oppose terror incidents..and we call out against such incidents. We pray for the injured people’s recovery.”

Normally, he says he condemns the terror attacks because they “do not serve palestinian interests.” I assume he did not say this today since he issued the statement from Israeli President Shimon Peres’ residence.

4:03PM: According to this report, the terrorist was wearing a large, Jewish skullcap. The report also indicates that things could have been even worse.

“[The driver] tried to bring the blade of the bulldozer on the head of a pedestrian, but missed her by an inch,” said one eyewitness.

4:18PM: The top 4 excuses for the terrorist’s actions, which will inevitably surface today:

4. He was actually shooting a scene from a movie about the tractor/bulldozer attack a few weeks ago, but he got a bit too “into the role.” Being from the Marlon Brando school of method acting and all.

3. He was a bad driver. A really bad driver.

2. He got upset after a group of Jews teased him about his relative’s red beard.

1. The bulldozer was, in fact, a Zionist Deathdozer^TM, activated via remote control, and designed to pin the blame on palestinians.

5:50PM: The AP reports that only 4 people were injured. Missed it by that much.

Also, contrary to the 4:03PM update, The AP reports the terrorist was wearing a Muslim skullcap, indicating he was a “religious” Muslim.

6:05PM: Elder looks at some of the initial palestinian reactions to the terror attack.

As I suspected, palestinian President Abbas has issued from Ramallah a more equivocal condemnation than the one he issued from President Peres’ residence.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack, saying it ‘hurts peace efforts’.

Abbas told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah: “We always condemn any terrorist act, and we condemn any attack on civilians regardless of what ‘.

He added: ‘I understand today that there was intentional attack, we certainly condemn it does not accept it, because it marred the reputation and marred the peace in general’.

6:16PM: A further glimpse at the evil witnessed today:

The first person to encounter the bulldozer terrorist on Monday was an English-speaking woman named Sarah who was about to cross the street. The man in the bulldozer indicated with his hand that she could cross and then press on the gas pedal to run her over.

6:23PM: From infolive.tv:

6:27PM: Ha’aretz reports that the Shin Bet chief warned of a copycat terrorist attack 3 hours before today’s attack.

6:40PM: CNN’s current headline: Attack injures 5 near Obama’s Jerusalem hotel

Besides the inaccurate injury tally, notice how the focus of the headline is the fact the attack occurred near Obama’s hotel. As if this matters, and as if there was a connection.

I just found out that one of yesterday’s victim’s, 33-year-old Bat Sheva Unterman, was the sister-in-law of the friend of a good friend of mine. As well as the cousin of an ex-neighbor.

Yes, Israel is a smaller country than you think.

The family of yesterday’s terrorist claims he could not have been a terrorist.

After all, some of his best friends were Jewish.

The 30-year-old east Jerusalem man who carried out Wednesday’s terrorist attack in the capital once lived with a Jewish woman, his relatives told The Jerusalem Post.

They identified him as Husam Taysir Dwayat, a father of two from the Sur Baher neighborhood in the city’s southeast.

According to the relatives, the fact that he had lived with a Jewish woman showed that Dwayat was not an extremist.

“[The Jewish woman] lived with him in Sur Baher,” said one relative. Although the woman’s family refused to have contact with him, “he was on good terms with many Jews with whom he used to work,” another relative said.

Residents expressed surprise at the identity of the terrorist.

Dwayat did not belong to any political faction, they said. “He was not a member of Hamas or Fatah,” said a man who knew him very well. “He was never part of any political framework.”

Incidentally, I wonder if the residents would have alerted authorities ahead of time had he been a visible member of a terror organization.

So if he was not a terrorist, why did he commit this heinous act?

It was the Jews’ fault of course!

A neighbor who asked not to be identified told the Post that Dwayat was known for his involvement in criminal, and not political, activities.

“In the past he got into trouble with the law,” he said. “I think his problems started while he was still with the Jewish wife. Some people say he was a drug addict.”

Shortly after the midday attack, police raided Dwayat’s home and arrested his father and one of his brothers.

Zuhier Hamdan, one of the mukhtars of Sur Bahir, also said he and most people in the neighborhood were surprised when they heard that Dwayat was behind the attack.

“He’s the last person you would think would do such a thing,” Hamdan told the Post. “He was an ordinary young man who was never involved in anti-Israel activities.”

Hamdan said he was convinced that the attack was a personal initiative and that Dwayat did not act on behalf of any Palestinian group.

As for the motive, Hamdan said he and Dwayat’s family did not rule out the possibility that haredi teenagers had assaulted him before the attack.

“There’s a rumor going on that some haredi students had thrown stones at him and cursed him at the construction site before the attack,” Hamdan said. “Perhaps he was so angry that he decided to go on a rampage.”

And we all know that rumors suggesting Jews were to blame must be true.

Updates (Israel time)

12:00PM: I wonder if this is a reference to the Jewish woman he lived with/Jewish “wife” mentioned above (hat tip: Shy Guy).

Many questions remain from Wednesday’s attack, such as why the police ultimately failed to stop the killer and how he was hired by the Municipality of Jerusalem despite having served two years in prison for the rape and attempted murder of a Jewish woman.

1:17PM: More “surprise” expressed from a member of the terrorist’s community.

“Residents here were appalled by the news. Even his family was surprised that such an honest man, who did not affiliated with any organization, was responsible for the attack. No one believes this man could have gone out and killed those people,” Sur Baher’s community center director, Tariq Awwad, told Ynet.

Yeah. A man so honest, he had a criminal record and spent time in prison for rape.

Either his family are stupid, or are lying. Methinks the second is more likely.

2:50PM: The terrorist’s family has been ordered to dismantle the mourning tent they erected in honor of the murderer despite explicit instructions from Jerusalem police chief Aharon Franco not to.

Not quite the act of a family ashamed of the killer’s actions.

4:00PM: Alternatively, he was not a bad man, just a bad driver.

Issam, the terrorist’s brother, said the Dawyyat family refused to believe that their son carried out a terror attack.

“My brother did not belong to any organization. He wasn’t even a religious person. After terror attacks he always used to say, ‘What is this nonsense? Why do we need this?’”

According to the brother, the incident may have been a road accident which had gone wrong. “Any person responsible for a road accident is alarmed and afraid. This can happen to anyone, and this could have been a road accident. It’s possible that my brother was scared when people started chasing him and shooting,” he told Ynet.

And just when you thought your intelligence had been insulted enough…

The lawyer representing the family of bulldozer driver Hossam Dawyyat of east Jerusalem, who murdered three people and injured dozens during a killing spree in Jerusalem on Wednesday, said Thursday that had the police cuffed the terrorist’s hands and legs and removed him from the vehicle, the incident would have ended at once and “life would have been spared.”

A few hours ago, a palestinian from East Jerusalem - with an Israeli ID card - deliberately plowed a bulldozer he was driving into a passenger bus on Jaffa Street, Jerusalem, killing at least four people and wounding dozens more.

I know many of you come here for my liveblogging and I will try to update you during the day on further developments, but since I am paid to work and not to blog, I can’t promise much until later.

Updates (Israel time)

2:33PM: The current tally is 4 dead, 44 wounded.

Meanwhile, it seems as though the man who killed the terrorist is related to another terrorist killer.

A soldier on leave took the gun from an elite policeman at the scene and shot the terrorist dead. The soldier, Moshe Klessner, 18, is the brother-in-law of IDF officer David Shapira, who killed the terrorist in the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva attack, Channel 2 reported.

2:45PM: A close call for the daughter of Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski, who was in the next bus.

3:00PM: The palestinian Ramattan News Agency makes the attack sound like an accident with the following headline:

Three Israelis killed, 30 injured in Jerusalem Bulldozers crash

They also report that the Ahrar Al-Jalil Brigades has claimed responsibility for the attack. Yeah, that Ahrar Al-Jalil Brigades. Hence I wouldn’t take their word for it.

By the way, this group also claimed responsibility for the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva attack earlier this year.

3:40PM: Jaffa Street is one of the main streets in downtown Jerusalem. If you have visited Israel, you have almost definitely spent time there. The attack took place near the old Central Bus Station, so many of you would be familiar with this area.

4:45PM: While Ha’aretz is still reporting at least 4 dead, both the JPost and Ynet are reporting 3 dead.

4:46PM: Killing is great for business: 3 palestinian groups have now claimed responsibility for the attack, but security officials are saying the terrorist was acting alone.

4:54PM: Believe it or not, here is recorded footage of the terrorist being stopped.

And if you really want to be aggravated, go visit the Live Leak page of this video and see some of the comments.

(Video seen over at Israel Matzav, where Carl is also live blogging)

6:00PM: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has ordered ministers to examine the possibility of razing the terrorist’s home in East Jerusalem, as well as revoking National Insurance Institute stipends from the terrorist’s family.

6:36PM: More from Moshe Plesser, the off-duty soldier who shot and killed the scum who drove the bulldozer:

As he began running towards the bulldozer, Plesser said that he shouted out to onlookers for a gun. Together with another civilian, Plesser climbed aboard the bulldozer and began wrestling with the driver.

“At one point he [the driver] yelled out “Allah Akhbar” [God is great] and stepped on the gas pedal,” Plesser recalled. “I drew the weapon of the civilian who was with me and shot the driver three times in the head. I think I did what is expected from every soldier and citizen.”

Seconds later, a police officer, Eli Mizrahi, climbed aboard the bulldozer and shot the terrorist again, killing him.

Plesser said that his brother-in-law David’s heroic conduct in March served as a role model. Shapira, who lives across the street from Mercaz Harav, heard the late-night shooting, ran into the building where two police officers were standing, took one of their caps and ran inside and shot the terrorist.

“I thank God who gave me and my brother-in-law the strength to do what we did,” he said, adding that his education in national-religious institutions and training in the elite Egoz unit served as the basis for his courageous conduct.

Incidentally, these national-religious institutions are much vilified, both by the world at large and some secular elements within Israel. But mark my words - the guys who go there are the best of the best, both in terms of their principles, as well as their heroism.

6:40PM: Knesset Member Esterina Tattman:

“If the terrorist who carried out the attack in Jerusalem really is a resident of east Jerusalem, who enjoyed State funds, we must demolish his house and deport his family to Gaza.”

6:52PM: CNN, true to form, has this headline:

Jerusalem bulldozer ‘terrorist’ kills 3 in rampage

Here’s their justification for the quotation marks:

Israeli authorities are investigating why a Palestinian resident of Jerusalem rammed his bulldozer into several cars and buses Wednesday, killing three people before Israeli police shot him dead.

Israeli authorities are labeling it a terrorist attack, although they say there is no clear motive and the man — a construction worker — acted alone. It is not known if he had links to any terrorist organization.

So let’s get this straight. The man cries “Allah Akhbar” and deliberately kills innocent people, yet the motive is still not clear?

Nice one, CNN.

8:13PM: The Knesset has approved two bills that will enable the government to revoke the citizenship of Israeli Arabs involved in terror activities as well as that of their families.

‘Bout bloody time.

9:05PM: As Honest Reporting points out, the BBC’s original headline for the report on today’s terror attack was Israel bulldozer driver shot dead.

I kid you not.

9:12PM: Commenter Daniel writes:

Dutch TV just reported it’s not a terrorist attack at all. Just a desperate individual.

9:25PM: “Ahmad? You are with the bulldozer driver’s family? Excellent. Make sure you take a picture of them holding a picture of him. And make sure it is a picture that makes him look gentle, intelligent and refined. Such as one of him in a suit and tie. Thanks Ahmad. I know I can count on you.”

A picture shows a portrait of Hussam Tarysir Dwayat, the Palestinian bulldozer driver who executed an attack in Jerusalem. A Palestinian killed three people and wounded 45 more as he rammed a bulldozer into buses and cars in Jerusalem on Wednesday before being shot dead by Israeli police who branded it a terror attack. (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)

10:37PM: Ynet reports on the miraculous survival of a five-month old baby girl who lost her mother in the attack.

11:15PM: Two of the victims have been identified.

Jerusalem residents Bat Sheva Unterman, 33, and Elizabeth Goren-Friedman, 54, were killed in the attack, as was a third person whose identity has not yet been released.

Unterman was a resident of Jerusalem’s Rehavia neighborhood, and worked as a nanny in a religious kingergarten in the city’s Har Homa quarter. She was killed when the car she was driving was crushed by the oncoming bulldozer.

Unterman’s 6-month old daughter, Efrat, was evacuated from the car just before the vehicle was hit.

Her husband, Ido, was notified only hours after the attack that his wife had been killed.

Unterman was the daughter of Rifka and James Lubenstein, immigrants from Holland. Her husband, Ido, was the grandson of Rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman, who served as chief rabbi of Liverpool and of Tel Aviv, and also as chief rabbi of Israel from 1964-1973.

The Unterman couple had tried for years to have children, but managed only with the birth of Efrat last year. Bat-Sheva had extended her maternity leave by a few months, returning to work last week with her daughter to celebrate the end of the year party.

Unterman’s friend, Meira Schwartz, described her as a person filled with faith, who never gave up her dream of having children, even after having to go through countless procedures.

“Until Efrat was born, the children in the kindergarten were like her own, and she was a nanny of the highest excellence, with exemplary patience for each and ever child,” said Schwartz.

Unterman will be laid to rest at 11:30 P.M. in the Givat Shaul cemetery in Jerusalem.

‘It’s difficult to speak about her in past tense’

Elizabeth Goren-Friedman, originally from Austria, was a resident of Katamon who worked as a teacher in a school for the blind. She was laid to rest at 10:30 P.M. in Givat Shaul.

Goren-Friedman was divorced and the mother of three children: Yael, 16, Issachar, 19, and Zvi, 23. Both of her sons were students at the Horev hesder yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Her friends described her as a “wonderful person,” who volunteered regularly at the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital.

Rachel Sakrovish, who worked with Goren-Friedman, said her colleague was an excellent teachers. “It’s hard to speak about her in the last tense. Lili was a wonderful person. There was not a student that she did not help progress on a personal, educational, and rehabilitative level. We knew that if a student was retreated or having difficulties, Luly was the teacher who would do the fundamental work to help him advance.”

“When I think of her, I remember the phrase, ‘a woman of valor, who can find,’” she said

May their blood be avenged.