Three Killed in Jerusalem Rampage
Palestinian From City's East Rammed Cars and Buses With Earthmover Before Being Shot Dead

By Griff Witte
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, July 3, 2008

JERUSALEM, July 2 -- Hussam Edwyat, the Palestinian construction worker who killed three Israelis and injured dozens of others by crushing cars and ramming buses with an earthmover in downtown Jerusalem on Wednesday, had intimate ties with his Jewish neighbors.

He worked among Jews, helping to build a luxury, ultra-Orthodox apartment complex in West Jerusalem. He lived among them, waking each day in a house that faces a Jewish neighborhood in mostly Arab East Jerusalem. And for a time, he dated one, friends and relatives said, having had a long-term Jewish girlfriend.

But on Wednesday, for reasons that remain unclear, Edwyat attacked them and ended up dying with them.

His deadly rampage started just before noon, when he plowed a yellow Caterpillar earthmover into lunchtime traffic on Jaffa Road, one of Jerusalem's main commercial thoroughfares. It ended only when an Israeli police officer jumped onto the vehicle's cab and fired two shots at close range.

The earthmover came to rest atop a car whose fatally injured driver remained pinned inside. Behind it lay a 400-yard trail of mangled bodies and vehicles.

Witnesses said Edwyat, 34, appeared determined to cause as much destruction as possible before he was stopped.

"People were running in all directions, but he was just driving forward with all his power," said Nil Levy, 25, a student who was walking by at the time.

One of the victims was identified late Wednesday night as Elizabeth Goren Friedman, 54. The other two were a 70-year-old man and a 30-year-old woman whose names were not disclosed. More than 40 people were injured.

The attack was the second this year involving a Palestinian from East Jerusalem who had crossed into predominantly Jewish West Jerusalem to kill. In March, a shooting at a seminary left eight people dead.

Wednesday's attack prompted immediate debate in Israel over whether more restrictions need to be placed on the 250,000 Palestinians living in East Jerusalem.

That would not be easy, however, since unlike in Gaza and the West Bank, where Palestinians' movements are severely limited by walls, fences and checkpoints, there is no barrier between the two halves of Jerusalem. Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem generally have Israeli residency cards that allow them to work in Israel.

"In Jerusalem, Jews and Arabs live together, and this is a situation that has existed for hundreds of years," said Israeli police chief David Cohen. "There's no way to control a single person if he wants to commit terrorism."

While Israeli officials suggested Edwyat had political motivations, friends and relatives in his East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sur Baher said that he had never expressed strong views and that his final act had caught them off guard.

"He didn't interfere with other people's business," said an uncle who did not want his name used. "Everybody in the neighborhood likes him. This was a shock and a surprise for every one of us."

Edwyat dated a Jewish woman for several years. A neighbor and a human rights worker who had spoken with the family said Edwyat had fathered the woman's child. Relatives said his only two children are by his Palestinian wife.

Police said Edwyat had a criminal record involving drug charges, but they did not provide details.

Several armed Palestinian groups asserted responsibility for Edwyat's attack. Israeli officials said their initial assessment was that he had acted alone.

Edwyat had been driving the earthmover as part of work on a planned 13-story apartment building for ultra-Orthodox Jews. He left the site just before noon and guided the earthmover onto an adjacent street, Jaffa. Witnesses said he immediately started ramming traffic both with the body of the vehicle and with the large shovel attached to it by a mechanical arm.

Drivers and bus passengers who were in the earthmover's path described a scene of initial confusion, followed by terror as they realized they were under attack.

"We heard a noise and just thought there had been an accident," said Eyal Ben-Nun, 16, who was on a bus headed home from school at the time. "But then the driver called for us all to get out."

When the passengers saw what was going on, Ben-Nun said, they ran from the bus screaming. He got off just before the machine sent the bus careening into the curb. "He just kept going, driving over one car and then another. He hit another bus and knocked it on its side," Ben-Nun said.

The attack occurred during a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, the armed Islamist movement in charge of the Gaza Strip. It sparked hostility toward the Palestinians at a time when Israel is negotiating a possible peace deal that could lead to the creation of a Palestinian state.

"You can't make peace with evil," said Hannah Shaish, standing a few steps from one victim lying lifeless on a stretcher.

The end of the rampage was caught on video by a local television station. When the video begins, the earthmover is at a standstill, and bystanders appear to believe the driver has been killed or subdued.

But then the vehicle suddenly lurches forward and takes off down the street. Several people give chase. The machine climbs atop one last car just as a police officer, Eli Mizrahi, leans into the cab and fires two rounds with a handgun.

On Wednesday night, Israeli officials were considering demolishing Edwyat's home, as well as other punitive measures.

"The residents of East Jerusalem have to stop this if they want to continue living with us," said Maj. Gen. Shahar Ayalon, deputy commissioner of the Israeli police.

Special correspondents Samuel Sockol, Sufian Taha and Hillary Zaken contributed to this report.