A truck rammed into a crowd of soldiers on a popular promenade in Jerusalem on Sunday, killing at least four people and wounding 15 others, officials said, in an attack that the prime minister said was carried out by a supporter of ISIS.

Magen David Adom ambulance service said four soldiers — three women and a man — had been pronounced dead. One severely wounded person was evacuated to a hospital.

The Israel Defense Forces identified the four as: Yael Yakotiel, 20, of Givatyim; Shir Hagag, 22, of Ma'ale Adumin; Shira Tzur, 20, from Haifa; and Erez Orbach, 20, of Alon Shvut.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the scene that authorities knew the identity of the attacker, and "as much as we know, he is a supporter of the Islamic State."

Israel's national police chief, Roni Alsheikh, told reporters that the truck was driven by "an east Jerusalem Palestinian" who was killed by other soldiers after the attack. Pictures from the scene showed the truck's windscreen pockmarked with several bullet holes.

A police spokesman described the incident, at the Armon Hanatziv promenade, which overlooks Jerusalem's Old Walled City, as "a terrorist attack," although an investigation remains ongoing.

Security camera video shown on Israeli Channel 2 TV showed the truck barreling at a high speed off the road and into the crowd of people. The truck is seen backing up quickly, apparently trying to crush more people, before the driver is shot dead.

"There was no sense in that reverse," Leah Schreiber, a witness, told reporters. "He drove backward to crush more people. That was really clear."

MDA paramedic Chen Lendi Sharon, who was first on the scene, said: "When we arrived, there was chaos. I saw a truck that rammed youngsters getting off the bus next to the Armon Hanatziv view point. On the grass near the road, [there] lay 10 trapped individuals."

The White House National Security Council said in a statement that the United States "condemns in the strongest terms today's horrific terrorist attack in Jerusalem."

"Such cowardly acts can never be justified, and we call on all to send a clear and unequivocal message that terrorism must never be tolerated," NSC spokesman Ned Price said in the statement.

Since last year, Palestinian attackers have killed 40 Israelis and two visiting Americans in a series of mostly stabbing attacks. During that time, 229 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire. Israel says most of the Palestinians killed were attackers, while the rest died in clashes. </s> The driver who plowed a truck into a group of soldiers in Jerusalem, killing four people and injuring at least 10, may have been an ISIS sympathizer, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israeli police shot and killed the attack suspect, whom they identified as 28-year-old Fadi Qunbar. Police have also arrested nine other suspects, including five of Qunbar’s family members.

Speaking from the scene of the attack, on a promenade overlooking the walled Old City of Jerusalem, Netanyahu said authorities have identified the terrorist and “all signs show he is a supporter of the Islamic State.”

“We know there is a sequence of terror attacks and it’s quite possible that there is a connection between them, from France, Berlin and now Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said.

Israel will now consider using administrative detention against suspected ISIS sympathizers and supporters, according to an official familiar with the decision. Earlier, Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told CNN “there are no potential active ISIS cells here in Israel.”

Netanyahu said police had sealed off Qunbar’s predominately Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem while they investigate.

While no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, Hamas, the militant fundamentalist Islamic organization, praised the attacker on Twitter.

“We bless the courageous and heroic truck operation in Jerusalem,” the group tweeted. “It comes within the context of the normal response to the crimes of the Israeli occupation.”

Hamas’ goal is the creation of an Islamic fundamentalist Palestinian state and they insist that Israel is an occupying power and must be destroyed.

Three of the four people killed were women. Israel Defense Forces said three of the slain were cadets and one was an officer. All of the slain victims were in their 20s.

“A group had gotten off the bus and were getting organized with their bags when the terrorist took the opportunity, ramming his truck into the group,” Rosenfeld said.

“Then he in fact reversed and tried to ram them again until shots were fired, and the terrorist was shot and killed at the scene.”

The four soldiers killed in the Jerusalem truck attack Sunday have been identified by Israel Defense Forces. They are:

Netanyahu posted photos of the four soldiers on Facebook with this message: “I am mourning the loss of our four soldiers who were murdered today in the terrorist attack in Jerusalem. In the name of all the people of Israel, I offer my condolences to their families.”

Several other officers and cadets were injured and evacuated to hospitals for medical treatment, IDF said.

In a statement, Jerusalem’s mayor, Nir Barkat, said there was “no limit to the cruelty of the terrorists who use every means to murder Jews and damage the routine life in the capital of Israel.”

In a statement, the US State Department condemned the “glorification of terrorism now or at any time” and said “there is absolutely no justification for these brutal and senseless attacks.”

Diplomatic tensions have flared between the United States and Israel in recent weeks after the Obama administration decided not to veto a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel and its construction of new settlements in East Jerusalem. </s> Brussels, Jan 9: The European Union (EU) has condemned the truck-ramming attack in Jerusalem which killed four Israeli soldiers and injured 15 others.

"The EU condemns the murder of these four young Israelis, as well as any praise or incitement for terrorist acts," a spokesperson of the European External Action Service (EEAS), or the EU's diplomatic service, said in a statement on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported.

Israeli police investigates the scene of an attack in Jerusalem Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017. A Palestinian rammed his truck into a group of Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem on Sunday, killing four people and wounding 15 others, Israeli police and rescue services said, in one of the deadliest attacks of a more than yearlong campaign of violence. Image courtesy PTI.

"There can be no justification for such a crime," the spokesperson said, "the EU will continue to work with those who seek peace and denounce those who pursue violence and terror."

Palestinian media identified the perpetrator as Fadi al-Qanbar from East Jerusalem's Jabel Mukaber neighbourhood.

Israel's police spokeswoman Luba Samri said that the incident -- which took place in Armon Hanatziv, a popular promenade that overlooks East Jerusalem's Old City -- was a "terrorist attack," although the investigation has yet to be concluded.

On Saturday, the assailant drove his truck into pedestrians, killing four soldiers, three of them women, and wounding 15 more, Samri said.

The attack was one of the deadliest amidst a more than yearlong wave of violence. Last June, two gunmen killed four persons at a trendy recreation compound in Tel Aviv. </s> Four Israeli soldiers were killed and more than 15 other people were injured Sunday when a truck slammed into a group of soldiers at a Jerusalem bus stop before the assailant was fatally shot, police said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited the scene, said the attacker has been identified and “according to all the signs he was a supporter of the Islamic State.”

He said there “definitely could be a connection” between Sunday's incident and recent truck attacks in France and Germany, the Associated Press reported.

Police chief Roni Alsheich described the crash as a terror attack. He said the truck driver was from an Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

"You don't need more than two to three seconds to find a terrorist target," he told the Haaretz newspaper. "The soldiers at the scene reacted immediately and killed the attacker."

The assailant speeded up and veered his truck into a group that had just exited the bus, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told TheJerusalem Post. Police heightened security throughout the capital and closed off neighborhoods near the scene, he said. Israel's security cabinet met to discuss fallout from the crash.

Paramedic Landy Sharon told reporters the truck had hit a group of young people. Military service of two years or more is mandatory for most Israelis over 18.

“About 10 people were lying on the ground near the street,” Sharno said. “Some of them were trapped under the truck.”

Leah Schreiber, told Haaretz he was an instructor who had been on the bus with the soldiers.

"A few minutes after we arrived, while I was talking about the Jerusalem landscape, I heard screaming behind me," he said. "I turned around a saw the truck getting on the sidewalk. Soldiers who were in the area started shooting at the truck. At first they couldn't kill him."

The Palestinian Hamas movement praised the attack but did not claim responsibility. Hamas spokesman Abdul-Latif Qanou called it a “heroic” act and encouraged other Palestinians to do the same.

Sunday's attack is the latest in a series of attacks by Palestinians on Israelis, mostly vehicle rammings and knife attacks. Since September 2015, Palestinian attackers have killed 40 Israelis and two visiting Americans — and 230 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis combating the attacks and other clashes, according to the AP.

Sunday’s attack marks the first Israeli deaths in three months. </s> Four Israelis were killed and more than a dozen people injured Sunday when a truck slammed into a group of soldiers at a Jerusalem bus stop before the assailant was fatally shot, police said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited the scene, said the attacker has been identified and “according to all the signs he was a supporter of the Islamic State.”

He said there “definitely could be a connection” between Sunday's incident and recent truck attacks in France and Germany, the Associated Press reported.

Police chief Roni Alsheich described the crash as a terror attack. He said the truck driver was from an Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

"You don't need more than two to three seconds to find a terrorist target," he told the Haaretz newspaper. "The soldiers at the scene reacted immediately and killed the attacker."

The assailant speeded up and veered his truck into a group that had just exited the bus, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told TheJerusalem Post. Police heightened security throughout the capital and closed off neighborhoods near the scene, he said. Israel's security cabinet met to discuss fallout from the crash.

Paramedic Landy Sharon told reporters the truck had hit a group of young people. Military service of two years or more is mandatory for most Israelis over 18.

“About 10 people were lying on the ground near the street,” Sharno said. “Some of them were trapped under the truck.”

Leah Schreiber, told Haaretz he was an instructor who had been on the bus with the soldiers.

"A few minutes after we arrived, while I was talking about the Jerusalem landscape, I heard screaming behind me," he said. "I turned around a saw the truck getting on the sidewalk. Soldiers who were in the area started shooting at the truck. At first they couldn't kill him."

The Palestinian Hamas movement praised the attack but did not claim responsibility. Hamas spokesman Abdul-Latif Qanou called it a “heroic” act and encouraged other Palestinians to do the same.

Sunday's attack is the latest in a series of attacks by Palestinians on Israelis, mostly vehicle rammings and knife attacks. Since September 2015, Palestinian attackers have killed 40 Israelis and two visiting Americans — and 230 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis combating the attacks and other clashes, according to the AP.

Sunday’s attack marks the first Israeli deaths in three months. </s> Brussels: The European Union (EU) has condemned the truck-ramming attack in Jerusalem which killed four Israeli soldiers and injured 15 others.

"The EU condemns the murder of these four young Israelis, as well as any praise or incitement for terrorist acts," a spokesperson of the European External Action Service (EEAS), or the EU's diplomatic service, said in a statement on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported.

"There can be no justification for such a crime," the spokesperson said, "the EU will continue to work with those who seek peace and denounce those who pursue violence and terror."

Palestinian media identified the perpetrator as Fadi al-Qanbar from East Jerusalem's Jabel Mukaber neighbourhood.

Israel's police spokeswoman Luba Samri said that the incident -- which took place in Armon Hanatziv, a popular promenade that overlooks East Jerusalem's Old City -- was a "terrorist attack," although the investigation has yet to be concluded.

On Saturday, the assailant drove his truck into pedestrians, killing four soldiers, three of them women, and wounding 15 more, Samri said.

The attack was one of the deadliest amidst a more than yearlong wave of violence. Last June, two gunmen killed four persons at a trendy recreation compound in Tel Aviv. </s> JERUSALEM - A truck rammed into a group of Israeli soldiers who were disembarking from a bus in Jerusalem on Sunday, killing four people and wounding 15 others, Israeli police and rescue services said.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said the truck veered off course and rammed into the group in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood. She said the attacker was shot dead.

Paramedic Chen Lendi Sharon was among the first to arrive on the scene and described 10 bodies trapped beneath the truck.

Israel’s rescue service MDA said the four casualties were in their 20s and included three women and a man. Of the 15 wounded, one was in serious condition.

Israel’s police chief Roni Alsheich told reporters the attacker was from an Arab neighborhood in east Jerusalem and forces had no advance warning. He refused to elaborate and a gag order was placed on further details pending an investigation.

It would rank as one of the deadliest in a more than yearlong wave of Palestinian shooting, stabbing and vehicular attacks against Israelis that had slowed of late. Sunday’s incident marks the first Israeli deaths in three months.

Since September 2015, Palestinian attackers have killed 40 Israelis and two visiting Americans. During that time, 230 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire. Israel says most of the Palestinians killed were attackers while the rest died in clashes. The Palestinians and rights groups have accused Israel of using excessive force in some confrontations.

Israel says the violence is driven by a Palestinian campaign of incitement, while Palestinians say it’s the result of nearly 50 years of Israeli occupation and dwindling hopes for an independent state. </s> A Palestinian rammed his truck into a group of Israeli soldiers on a popular promenade in Jerusalem on Sunday, killing four people and injuring about 15 others in a deliberate attack, police and emergency services said.

Police identified the driver as a Palestinian from Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem and said he was shot dead. A dozen bullet holes pockmarked the windscreen.

It was the deadliest Palestinian attack in Jerusalem in months and targeted officer cadets who were disembarking from a bus that brought them to the Armon Hanatziv promenade, a stone-laden and grass-lined walkway with a panoramic view of the walled Old City.

"It is a terrorist attack, a ramming attack," a police spokeswoman said.

Police said the dead, three women and one man, were all in their twenties, without identifying them further. Soldiers' deaths are announced in Israel only after families are notified.

Roni Alsheich, the national police chief, told reporters he could not rule out that the Palestinian was motivated by a truck ramming attack in a Berlin Christmas market that killed 12 people last month.

"It is certainly possible to be influenced by watching TV but it is difficult to get into the head of every individual to determine what prompted him, but there is no doubt that these things do have an effect," Alsheich told reporters.

A wave of Palestinian street attacks, including vehicle rammings, has largely slowed but not stopped completely since it began in October 2015.

Security camera footage showed the truck racing towards the soldiers, and then after a gap that apparently included scenes of carnage, reversing into them.

"In a split second I looked to my left and saw what I can only describe as a speeding truck which sent me flying," a security guard, who was identified only as "A" told Channel 10.

"It was a miracle that my pistol stayed on me. I shot at a tire but realized there was no point as he has many wheels, so I ran in front of the cabin and at an angle I shot at him and emptied my magazine. When I finished shooting, some of the officer cadets also took aim and also started firing."

The footage showed many of the soldiers fleeing the scene as the attack took place, their rifles slung on their shoulders. Questions were already being raised in the Israeli media why more did not engage the attacker.

Rescue workers said about 15 wounded people were strewn on the street at the promenade as ambulances raced to the scene. The Israeli military regularly takes soldiers on educational tours of Jerusalem, including the Armon Hanatziv vantage point.

Channel 10 television said the soldiers' tour guide also fired at the assailant.

As a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem, which Israel considers part of its capital but the world does not, the truck driver would carry an Israeli identity card and be able to move freely through all of the city.

Palestinian street assaults over the past 15 months have killed at least 37 Israelis and two visiting Americans.

At least 231 Palestinians have been killed in violence in Israel, the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip during that period. Israel says at least 157 of them were assailants in lone attacks often targeting security forces and using rudimentary weapons including kitchen knives. Others died during clashes and protests.

Israel says one of the main causes of the violence has been incitement by the Palestinian leadership, with young men encouraged to attack Israeli soldiers and civilians.

The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, denies that allegation, and says assailants have acted out of frustration over Israeli occupation of land Palestinians seek for a state in peace talks stalled since 2014.

"We bless this heroic operation resisting the Israeli occupation to force it to stop its crimes and violations against our people," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told Reuters. </s> Palestinian driver ploughs into soldiers gathered at a promenade overlooking the Old City, killing four and injuring a dozen

Four Israeli soldiers, three of them cadets, were killed in Jerusalem on Sunday when a Palestinian attacker driving a truck ploughed into them deliberately, injuring more than a dozen more.

The attack, the deadliest in months, comes after a lull in recent violence between Palestinians and Israelis.

It comes at a time of warnings about growing tensions, not least over Donald Trump’s highly controversial plan to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, and calls from some rightwing Israeli ministers to annex parts of the occupied Palestinian territories.

Police said the dead, three women and a man, were all in their 20s. Among the wounded, three were described as in a serious condition.

The attack took place as a large group of Israeli soldiers visited a scenic outlook overlooking modern Jerusalem and the Old City, a few blocks from the current US consulate.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said: “We in Jerusalem have just experienced an unprovoked terrorist attack, a murderous attack that claimed the lives of four young Israelis and wounded others. This is part of the same pattern inspired by Islamic State, by Isis, that we saw first in France, then in Germany and now in Jerusalem.”

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, and Palestinians with no known links to Isis have carried out ramming attacks in the past. Palestinian media identified the attacker as Fadi al-Qanbar, a married man in his 20s, who had reportedly previously served time in an Israeli prison.

Israeli police said the driver was from Jabel Mukaber, an area of Israeli-occupied east Jerusalem not far from the scene of the attack. Some media reports suggested Israeli licence plates on the vehicle meant it had been stolen.

Israel News Online (@IsraelNewsOrg) Arab #terrorist truck attack, #Jerusalem. 3 IDF dead, 1 IDF critical, 6 serious, 15 light. Soldiers from officers course from Gedud Erez. pic.twitter.com/VOqU2T7k2M

The driver was shot dead by other soldiers and a tour guide with the group that was hit as the driver reversed back towards the dead and injured.

Graphic security camera footage shot from a distance showed the truck racing towards a group of soldiers standing by their bus and then driving through the group, scattering bodies. After a gap of a few seconds the truck is seen reversing into them again.

“In a fraction of a second during which I was speaking with one of the officers, I saw the truck ploughing into us,” the guide, Eitan Rod, told Israel Army Radio.

“After a few rolls on the grass I saw the truck start to reverse and then I already understood that this was not an accident. I felt that my pistol was still on me, so I ran up to him and started emptying my clip. He went in reverse and again drove over the injured.”

As emergency workers removed the bodies from the scene, dozens of other young soldiers, some visibly shaken, were gathered on a park terrace where officers, paramedics and a military rabbi comforted them.

Leah Schreiber, a tour guide accompanying another group of soldiers, witnessed the attack.

“I was with a group of about 10 soldiers training to be commanders when I heard shouting,” she said. “I was explaining about the view of Jerusalem.

“I heard shouting and then shooting. I looked behind and saw the truck had driven on to the sidewalk hitting the soldiers.

“It took a few seconds to understand what was happening. Some soldiers had been told to hide in case of a second attack, while others were shooting the chauffeur.”

A security guard identified only as A told Channel 10: “In a split second I looked to my left and saw what I can only describe as a speeding truck which sent me flying.

“It was a miracle that my pistol stayed on me. I shot at a tyre, but realised there was no point as he had many wheels, so I ran in front of the cabin and at an angle I shot at him and emptied my magazine. When I finished shooting, some of the officer cadets also took aim and also started firing.”

Landy Sharona, a paramedic who attended to the injured, told the Jerusalem Post: “About 10 people were lying on the ground near the street. Some of them were trapped under the truck.”

Other eyewitnesses who arrived quickly on the scene described coming across one body under the truck’s wheels and two others beside it while the driver was slumped dead behind a windscreen hit by a dozen bullets.

Israel’s chief of police, Roni Alsheich, described the incident as a terror attack. “You don’t need more than two to three seconds to find a terrorist target. The soldiers at the scene reacted immediately and killed the attacker,” he said.

The incident is the deadliest Palestinian attack in Jerusalem in months. It happened just after the cadets had disembarked from a coach that had brought them to the Armon Hanatziv promenade, a grass-lined stone walkway with a panoramic view of the walled Old City.

Alsheich told reporters he could not rule out the driver of the truck having been motivated by a similar attackon a Berlin Christmas market that killed 12 people last month.

“It is certainly possible to be influenced by watching TV, but it is difficult to get into the head of every individual to determine what prompted him, but there is no doubt that these things do have an effect,” he said.

Rescue workers said about 15 wounded people lay on the street as ambulances raced to the scene. The Israeli military regularly takes soldiers on educational tours of Jerusalem, including the Armon Hanatziv vantage point.

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, has warned of serious consequences if Trump follows through on his place to move the US embassy from from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

“You’d have an explosion, an absolute explosion in the region, not just in the West Bank and perhaps even in Israel itself, but throughout the region,” he said in a recent interview with CBS.

A wave of Palestinian street attacks, including vehicle rammings, has largely slowed but not stopped completely since October 2015. Assaults over the past 15 months have killed at least 37 Israelis and two visiting US citizens.

At least 231 Palestinians have been killed in violence in Israel, the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip during the same period. Israel says at least 157 of them were assailants in lone attacks often targeting security forces and using rudimentary weapons including kitchen knives. Others died during clashes and protests.

Israel says one of the main causes of the violence has been incitement by the Palestinian leadership, with young men encouraged to attack Israeli soldiers and civilians.
A truck rams into a group of Israeli soldiers in a deliberate attack in East Jerusalem, killing four and wounding 21. The perpetrator was previously convicted of terrorism and was jailed for 10 years.