According to the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu "all elements" show that the 28-year old Fadi Qunbar was a supporter of the jihadist movement. But there is no evidence to support this thesis. Yesterday he drove a truck into a group of Israeli soldiers; four soldiers dead, 17 others were injured.
Jerusalem (AsiaNews / Agencies) - "All elements" emerging from investigations into the man who killed four soldiers yesterday in Jerusalem point to the fact he is an Islamic State (IS)"sympathizer”, claims Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, commenting on the attack carried out by a young Palestinian who drove a truck into a group of Israeli soldiers.
However, the Prime Minister has given no evidence to support this statement public.
The assailant is 28-year old Palestinian Fadi Qunbar, a native of Jabel Mukaber district in East Jerusalem, not far from the place where the attack occurred. After hitting the soldiers - in a pattern already seen in the past in Berlin and Nice - he was killed by security forces.
The Israeli government, after an emergency committee meeting, has approved detention without trial for IS supporters and sympathizers.
Four soldiers died in the attack, three women and a man, all in their early twenties. At least 17 were wounded. The images captured by security cameras showed the truck ploughing into the military group, then reverse and go over the victims a second time.
In a statement, the Israeli military released the names of the victims: Yael Yekutiel, 20, Shir Hajaj 22, Erez Orbach 20 and Shira Tzur, also 20 years old.
In the hours after the attack the police carried out a raid in the area of origin of the aggressor, arresting nine people, including five members of his family.
Visiting the place where the attack occurred, Netanyahu has suggested a "connection" between what happened in France and Germany, and yesterday's events in Jerusalem. And the head of police Roni Alseich added that the events in Berlin were a "motivation."
The Palestinian militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and is considered a terrorist group by the US and European Union, greeted news of the attack and praised the young attacker. Hamas spokesman, Abdul-Latif Qanou, spoke of a "heroic gesture" that should encourage other Palestinians to "step up the resistance."
The incident is part of a wave of violence that broke out in October 2015, triggered by a series of provocations by ultra-Orthodox Jews who wanted to pray at the Temple Mount, a holy place not only for Palestinians, but for all Muslims.
Since then, incidents and clashes have occurred in Israel and the Palestinian territories as part of what has been called the ‘knife intifada’. At least 35 Israelis have been killed in stabbings, run over by cars and trucks or shot; on the Palestinian side there have been more than 200 victims. For the Palestinian leadership the violence is motivated by a growing frustration of the population at the occupation promoted - and exacerbated by the current government - by Israel