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(AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)
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JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- A Palestinian ran his vehicle into a group of Israeli officers in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem on Friday, Israeli sources said.

The driver was Muhammad Mahmoud Abd al-Razeq al-Salaymeh, 22, from the Ras al-Amud neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Ma'an the man was driving outside an Israeli border police station between East and West Jerusalem and struck five people, including four border police and one civilian pedestrian.

After hitting the group, the man continued driving for around 100 meters, when he attempted to leave the vehicle wielding a knife.

When exiting his car he was shot and arrested by border police and security guards, according to Rosenfeld.

Israeli medical sources said that three of the individuals hit were injured moderately while another two were lightly injured. Al-Salaymeh is in critical condition.

Rosenfeld added that security measures throughout Jerusalem were heightened in response to the incident.

Following the attack, the Israeli police summoned the father and brothers of al-Salaymeh to the Russian compound for interrogation.

Lawyer of the Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association, Muhammad Mahmoud, said that al-Salaymeh is currently in a hospital for treatment.

Mahmoud added that a session will be held at the magistrate court on Saturday for extending the detention of al-Salaymeh.

The incident is the first of its kind since a series of similar vehicular attacks in Jerusalem during the Fall of 2014, which killed several people. The attacks were labeled as "terrorist attacks" by Israeli authorities, and the attackers were shot dead at the scene in each case.

The car attacks were part of ongoing tensions in East Jerusalem at the time, marking increasing instances of Palestinian youth throwing rocks and firebombs in the area, often targeting the light rail, buses, or cars.

Israeli security forces heightened activity in East Jerusalem in response to the wave of violence, including the use of surveillance balloons, vamped up presence of police and border guards, the approval of a law enabling 20-year sentences for throwing stones, and punitive home demolitions.

In the case of previous car attacks by Palestinians, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the demolition of the homes of the attackers in an effort to deter future attacks. This policy of punitive demolitions received criticism due to the fact that demolitions punished individuals who hadn't committed crimes, the family and often-times extended family of the attacker.
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East Jerusalem resident drove car into crowd of Border Police, then attacked them with knife; assailant in critical condition after being shot at scene.
By Nir Hasson for Haaretz
| Mar. 6, 2015 | 10:36 AM

Seven people were wounded in a terror attack in Jerusalem on Friday morning after a Palestinian man plowed his car into a crowd of border policewomen and then exited the vehicle wielding a knife.

The attack took place by the entrance to a Border Police base near the light rail station which serves the Old City's Damascus Gate.

The assailant, Mohammed Salayma, a resident of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras al-Amud, first drove his car onto the pavement and rammed it into a group of Border Police soldiers. After being shot at by members of the Border Police, Salayma exited the car wielding a knife - and was then shot and critically wounded.

The seven people wounded in the attack were evacuated to Hadassah Har Hatzofim Hospital. Two were hospitalized in moderate condition, and the others with light injuries. Four policewomen are among the wounded.

The assailant was taken to Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital in critical condition.

According to the Shin Bet, Salayma was not known to security forces, though he does have a criminal record. According to Palestinian sources, Salayma carried out the attack in response to social media reports of an attack on Muslim worshippers on the Temple Mount.

Salayma uploaded a photo of himself covered in a Palestinian flag yesterday to Facebook, with the status, “in the name of Allah and the homeland.”

The attack took place at virtually the same spot where four months ago a similar attack killed a Border Police officer and left 13 people injured.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat promised to "keep fighting terrorism," and said that as part of the struggle to "keep to the routine of our daily lives," the capital's Purim celebrations would be held as planned.

The municipality's central event is slated to take place later in the day at Safra Square, which lies some 200 meters from the scene of the attack.

In Jerusalem, Purim is traditionally celebrated one day later than the rest of Israel, due to its biblical status as a walled city.
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by IMEMC News Saturday March 07, 2015 02:21

Many Palestinians Injured In Ensuing Clashes, Child Kidnapped

The Wadi Hilweh Information Center (Silwanic) in Silwan, in occupied Jerusalem has reported that a young Palestinian man was shot and seriously injured by Israeli army fire, after the soldiers alleged he deliberately struck some soldiers with his car on Street #1 in Jerusalem.

The seriously wounded man has been identified as Mohammad Mahmoud Salaymeh, 22 years of age. Israeli sources said the young man ran-over a group of soldiers, wounding five.

Mohammad is from Ras al-‘Amoud neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem.

A lawyer with the Ad-Dameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association said Mohammad, who is currently receiving treatment in Hadassah Ein Karem Israeli hospital in Jerusalem, would undergo a trial in absentia, on Saturday evening, to extend his arrest for interrogation.

The lawyer, Mohammad Mahmoud, said the police and Israeli Internal Security officers, interrogated the father of the wounded young man, and his brother for seven hours. They were released later, but were ordered to return for further interrogation on Saturday at noon.

The father said he and his family only knew about the incident on TV and Social Media outlets.

He added that his son left home in the morning to look for work, but two hours later, the family heard news about an attack in Jerusalem, and that is when they saw images and videos of their son, wounded and lying on the ground with soldiers surrounding him.

Following the incident and the shooting, clashes took place in different parts of Silwan, and the soldiers kidnapped a child, while a young man was shot by a rubber-coated metal bullet in the face.

Silwanic said that Israeli guards of an illegal outpost in Beidoun neighborhood also provoked two young men, and sprayed their eyes and faces with pepper-spray.

A police car then arrived at the scene, and clashed with local youths, before kidnapping a child, identified as Mustafa Beidoun, 14 years of age, while standing in front of his family’s home.

In ‘Ein al-Lowza neighborhood, a young man was shot by a rubber-coated metal bullet in his forehead just above his eye, during clashes that took place with invading Israeli soldiers, and the army fired dozens of gas bombs, concussion grenades and rubber-coated metal bullets.

In addition, undercover soldiers invaded a home, belonging to Sheikh Sabri Abu Thiab, and occupied its rooftop after searching it.

Dozens of soldiers and police officers also invaded Abu Tayeh neighborhood, and hurled a number of sound bombs.

Furthermore, clashes took place in the Schools Street, and the Shayyah neighborhood, in Ras al-‘Amoud after the soldiers invaded them.