Four Israeli soldiers have been killed after a truck deliberately rammed into them in Jerusalem on Sunday in an attack which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said was committed by a likely supporter of the so-called Islamic State.
The truck driver, identified as a Palestinian from East Jerusalem, was shot dead at the scene. Of the four who were who were killed after disembarking from a bus, three were female and one was a male. All were aged in their 20s and three were cadets with the fourth being an officer. At 15 others were injured in the attack.
The attack is one of the deadliest by a Palestinian in 18 months of violence which has also included stabbings and shootings. Prime Minister Netanyahu reportedly described it as “part of the same pattern inspired by Islamic State, by ISIS, that we saw first in France, then in Germany and now in Jerusalem” – a reference to the use of vehicles in attacks in both Nice and Berlin in the past six months.
Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, condemned the attack.
“People in Jerusalem suffered a terrible incident today. Again a truck was used as mass-murder weapon? This is to be condemned by all. Every life is precious.”
He also condemned attacks which took place in Syria and Iraq over the weekend. At least five people died and 15 more were injured after a car bomb exploded near the capital, Damascus, on the weekend while in Baghdad at least 11 were killed and dozens more injured when a car bomb exploded at a market in the city’s east.
Rev Dr Tveit said people in Jerusalem, Baghdad and Damascus and across the world should be assured that the WCC fellowship stood with them in “prayer, mourning and steadfast hope”.
“We pray for the victims and their families and we seek God’s mercy, love and grace that we may be empowered with strength to continue our pilgrimage of justice and peace,” he said. “Now is the time to build national and joint international responsible leadership to find political solutions and joint efforts to establish peace with justice in this region of the world, which has been so militarised and ordinary citizens have become the victims.”
