Update 2 – February 11, 2023: Asher Menachem Paley, 8, the brother of Yaakov Paley, 6, who was killed in the incident a day earlier, succumbed to his wounds at an Israeli medical center in Jerusalem.
Update: Feb 11, 2023, at 04:27: The Israelis who were killed in the incident have been identified as six-year-old Yaakov Israel Paley, 6, from Ramot, and Alter Shlomo Liderman, 20, from Jerusalem.
Yaakov’s funeral was held on Friday afternoon, with family members in attendance, and was restricted to family members and neighbors. Alter was a newlywed, who was married four months earlier.
One eyewitness told the Israeli paper Ha’aretz that, at first, it appeared to be an accident when the vehicle ran off the road and onto the crowded bus stop.
Another eyewitness told reporters, “For about a minute, several people with guns stood around the vehicle and pointed at the driver, but did not shoot. The driver made a sign with his hands as if to say ‘no,’ and everyone held their fire. At some point, someone threw a large stone at the vehicle, the attacker moved, and everyone fired at him.”
The driver of the vehicle, a 31-year Palestinian construction worker and father of three, Hussein Khaled Qaraqe’, 32, had been injured six months before in a construction accident.
He had been renting an apartment in Jerusalem to be able to get to job sites without having to cross from his hometown in al-Isawiya each day and potentially get stopped at a checkpoint and unable to make it to work.
Following the incident, which was either an accident or a so-called ‘lone wolf’ attack, Israeli security officials met to discuss the punishment they are planning for the besieged Palestinian population living under Israeli martial law in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza Strip.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stated that he had given an order for Israeli police to establish checkpoints throughout the East Jerusalem neighborhood of al-Isawiya “and to stop everyone one by one, and just check each vehicle.”
These types of checkpoints, particularly on Friday afternoon, wreak havoc on the commutes of thousands of workers, teachers, and students trying to get home.
Israeli troops invaded the home of the Palestinian driver Hussein Khaled Qaraqe’ and dragged out his wife, father, and two brothers, in front of the three young children. The soldiers took them to a military base for so-called ‘enhanced interrogation.’
In the At-Tour village, where other relatives of the deceased Khaled Qaraqe’ reside, Israeli soldiers invaded and abducted an additional six family members.
Updated from: Feb 10, 2023, at 15:27
Israeli sources have reported Friday that a child and a young man were killed and five Israelis were injured in what was described as a car-ramming attack after a Palestinian driver struck a bus stop near Shu’fat, northwest of occupied Jerusalem.
The sources said the incident occurred in Ramot and added that a child, 6, and a young man, 20, were killed before the Palestinian driver, Hussein Qaraqe’, 31, from the Al-Isawiya town in Jerusalem, was shot dead at the scene.
Israeli Jerusalem Post daily said an off-duty police officer who rushed to the scene shot the Palestinian driver.
The driver reportedly rammed his car into several pedestrians at a bus stop before he was shot and killed.
According to the Jerusalem Post, two children were listed as critically injured in the attack, two adults were seriously injured, and two suffered moderate wounds before the child, a six-year-old boy, and the young men succumbed to their wounds.
Israeli Ynet News said soldiers and police officers were searching for “other potential suspects,” adding that they entered a synagogue with their guns drawn during the search.
Also Friday, an Israeli colonizer rammed a Palestinian with his car in the Qalqas area, south of Hebron city, in the southern part of the West Bank.
Medical sources said the Palestinian, Sufian Mohammad Al-Jo’ba, 38, suffered a fracture in his arm and was moved to a hospital in the city.
