A driver has rammed a car into several pedestrians in East Jerusalem, killing one person, hours after clashes erupted at the city’s holiest site.At least nine others were injured in the “suspected terror attack”, a police spokesman said.The suspect was shot dead by police, spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.A similar attack took place in the same area two weeks ago, when a Palestinian man killed a woman and baby after driving into them.The city has seen a recent escalation in tensions, heightened by the shooting of prominent right-wing Jewish activist Rabbi Yehuda Glick, who remains in a critical condition.Holy site clashes The Temple Mount/al-Haram al-Sharif compound was briefly closed earlier to visitors after dozens of Palestinian protesters fought with police.Rabbi Glick is a well-known campaigner for the right of Jews to pray at the site, which is currently prohibited.The compound – known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif – is the holiest site in Judaism, and contains the al-Aqsa Mosque – the third holiest site in Islam.In Wednesday’s car attack, police said the vehicle struck more than a dozen people as they were getting off a tram, on the route that runs between East and West Jerusalem.The driver then got out of his car and started attacking people with an iron rod, they said.
Israeli media reports say the driver was from Shuafat refugee camp in the east of the city, but this has not been confirmed.Earlier on Wednesday, dozens of masked protesters hurled rocks and launched fireworks at police near the non-Muslim visitors’ entrance to the site, Israeli police said.They said they managed to disperse the crowd using stun grenades, and no arrests were made. Several police officers were injured in the incident, they added.A Palestinian manager at the compound said some 20 people were wounded in the clashes, Reuters reports.There has been an escalation in tension in the city since the Gaza conflict last summer, with nightly clashes seen in some East Jerusalem districts between Palestinians and Israeli security forces.Last week, a 31-year-old Palestinian man suspected of attacking Rabbi Glick in Jerusalem was shot dead after opening fire, police said, when officers surrounded his home.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of inciting Palestinians to carry out attacks in Jerusalem. Palestinian officials have rejected the charge, saying Mr Netanyahu is fuelling tensions in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.The fate of Jerusalem is one of the most contentious issues between Israel and the Palestinians.The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, while Israel regards the whole of Jerusalem as its “eternal and indivisible capital”.Israel occupied East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1980 in a move not recognised internationally. -BBC
