A truck plowed into a group of soldiers at the promenade in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood of Jerusalem this afternoon, killing at least four and injuring 15. The police confirmed that it was a terrorist attack. The driver was killed at the scene.
The soldiers were disembarking from a bus at the popular tourist spot in southeastern Jerusalem when the driver of a flat-bed rig accelerated into the group.
Three women and one man, all in their 20s, were killed in the attack. Three others were severely injured, one was moderately injured, and the others were lightly injured. A number of victims at first were trapped under the truck, according to an Magen David Adom paramedic on the scene. They were then transferred to either Shaarei Zedek or Hadassah Ein Kerem hospitals in Jerusalem.
Those killed in the attack were:
Cpl. Erez Orbach, 20, of Alon Shvut, a cadet in the officer’s training school. After his death, his rank was posthumously raised to Second Lieutenant. He was laid to rest at the cemetery in Kfar Etzion.
Cpl. Shira Tzur, 20, of Haifa, a cadet at the officer’s training school, was posthumously raised to Second Lieutenant. She was laid to rest at the military cemetery in Haifa.
Second Lt. Shir Hajaj, 22, of Ma’ale Adumim, was posthumously raised to the rank of First Lieutenant. She was laid to rest at the Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem.
Second Lt. Yael Yekutiel, 20, of Givatayim, was posthumously raised to the rank of First Lieutenant. She was laid to rest at the cemetery in Kiryat Shaul.
The driver of the soldiers’ bus reported that after the truck drove into the group, the terrorist “reversed and ran over them again.”
The soldiers were visiting the capital as part of an army program in which troops are given tours of Jerusalem and other historic places around the nation.
The driver was identified as Fadi al-Qanbar, a resident of Jerusalem’s Jabel Mukaber neighborhood, according to Arab media.
The attack took place during the fast of 10 Tevet, a day set aside for mourning the siege and subsequent destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians in the fifth century BCE.
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