A car driven by an unknown assailant plowed through a group of soldiers on a sidewalk in Jerusalem just before 2 am Thursday morning, injuring 12 of the soldiers, one critically.
The driver fled the scene, and Israeli police later located what they say was the car responsible for the collision in the Palestinian town of Beit Jala. The owner of the car was not identified, though it bore Israeli license plates.
Israeli authorities immediately declared the vehicular assault an “act of terror”, and put Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank under a closure order. They closed checkpoints and stopped all Palestinians between Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld stated, “the incident is being investigated as a terror attack”.
Five of the twelve injured soldiers were hospitalized and treated for mild to moderate injuries. One suffered critical injuries and was declared stable after undergoing surgery.
According to the Jerusalem Post, the soldiers were on a “heritage tour” on David Remez Street in advance of their swearing-in ceremony to the Golan Brigades, which was scheduled to take place at the Western Wall in Jerusalem later Thursday.
