Palestinian Terrorist Drives Car Into Crowded Bus at Ramot; Two Brothers and Newly Married Murdered, 5 Injured

By Hamodia Staff

A Palestinian terrorist plowed a car into a crowded bus stop in Yerushalayim’s Ramot neighborhood on Friday, killing three and injuring five Jews before being shot and killed, Israeli police and medics said.

The deceased were initially identified as six-year-old Yaakov Yisrael Palai, Hy”d; and Reb Alter Shlomo Lederman, Hy”d, a young Pinsk-Karlin chassid in his 20s who had just gotten married three short months ago. Lederman was waiting at the bus stop to travel to Elad to be with his parents for Shabbos. Yaakov Yisrael’s brother, Asher Menachem, passed away over Shabbos from his injuries. A third Palai child, Moshe Yehuda, was lightly injured as well.

As per the psak of Harav Ezriel Auerbach, shlita, the levayos took place before the onset of Shabbos. Palai’s leveyah was held on Har Hemenuchos shortly before Shabbos. The young child’s father, Reb Avraham Noach, was injured in the terrorist attack, and was unable to attend his son’s hastily arranged levayah.

Police reported that medics were treating five injured in the attack, including an eight-year-old child in critical condition undergoing CPR. Others, ages ranging from 10 to 40, were in moderate to serious condition. They had been waiting at the bus stop before the car came crashing to a stop, police said.

The victims of this terrorist attack are being treated at Hadassah-Ein Kerem and Hadassah-Har Tzofim Hospitals.

“It was a shocking scene,” said paramedic Lishai Shemesh, who happened to be driving by at the time of the attack. “I was in the car with my wife and children and noticed a car driving fast into the bus stop and crushing the people who were waiting there.”

Dovi Weisenstern, CEO of Zaka, said, “The scene is very difficult. A terrorist rammed a bus station filled with many families. When I arrived at the scene, I saw a lot of commotion, difficult scenes of people and children dressed in Shabbos clothes lying near the station suffering from serious injuries. Cries for help from all sides.

“The medical teams quickly evacuated the victims with varying degrees of injury to the hospital. Unfortunately, at the scene of the attack, one wounded person was pronounced dead. The terrorist was neutralized and eliminated on the spot.

“Once again, we are dealing with a serious incident of injury to innocents, a brutal attack on Erev Shabbos against innocent civilians who were waiting at a bus stop.”

Readers are asked to daven for the refuah sheleimah of the injured: Chayah bas Sarah, Avraham Noach ben Yehudis, Moshe Yehuda ben Chana Devorah, Elchanan Pardo, besoch she’ar cholei Yisrael.

An off-duty detective shot and killed the suspected attacker at the scene, police said, describing him as a Palestinian in his 30s from eastern Yerushalayim. Palestinian media identified him as 32-year-old Hussein Qaraqa.

Mayor Moshe Leon of Yerushalayim said, “The heart aches and aches when confronted with the difficult sights. A despicable terrorist takes the lives of innocent children and adults just because they are Jews. This is another event that teaches about a tense period that requires vigilance.

“I encourage the security forces in their work in the investigation of the incident and in the war for the security of the citizens of Israel and the residents of Yerushalayim.”

Speaking from the scene of the attack, Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, ordered police to set up checkpoints around the driver’s neighborhood of Issawiya to “check every vehicle.”

“I wanted to to create a full blockade (on the area), but there is a judicial question around it,” he added.

President Isaac Herzog expressed shock and offered condolences to the families of the victims. “Our hearts are pained by the terrible news,” he said.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office said he dispatched more police forces to the area and directed them to arrest those in the driver’s “circle.” He and Ben-Gvir called for the immediate sealing of the assailant’s home ahead of its planned demolition.

The new government has announced its intention to accelerate the decades-old policy of home demolitions, sealing the family homes of two attackers in eastern Yerushalayim following a pair of shootings last month.