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Dubai: In an operation that defied the recent quiet in the Middle East, a Palestinian rammed a bulldozer into buses and cars in occupied Jerusalem yesterday, killing three Israelis and wounding 45 more before he was shot dead by Israeli forces.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the Palestinian was a 30-year-old construction worker from East Jerusalem.
Chaos erupted as the heavy vehicle barrelled along Jaffa Road in the heart of the western section of the city, ploughing into two crowded public buses, overturning one of them, and ramming other vehicles, reducing one car to a mangled wreck. Traffic was halted, and hundreds of people fled through the streets in panic.
Several people opened fire at the man driving the earthmover and at least two policemen jumped on to vehicle, emptying several rounds into the driver and leaving him slumped over the wheel, according to AFP reporters. Most Israeli civilians are known to be carrying arms outside their homes.
The attack took place in front of a building housing the offices of The Associated Press and other media outlets. The incident was the first in the occupied city since a Palestinian gunman shot eight Jews at a seminary in March. It comes as the Palestinians and the Israelis try to resume peace talks in the West Bank and a week after the Israelis reached a truce deal with Hamas in Gaza. Hamas called the attack “the natural result of continuing Israeli aggression and crimes against our people in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem”.
Nasrallah okays swap
Israel is also engaged in indirect talks with Lebanon’s Hezbollah to finalise a prisoners’ exchange deal, which was confirmed yesterday by the Lebanese group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah a few days after it was approved by the Israeli government.
According to details announced by Nasrallah yesterday, the deal includes the exchange of two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah two years ago in return of five Lebanese prisoners, more than 200 bodies of Lebanese and Palestinian fighters killed in Israel in the past three decades and the release of a number of Palestinian prisoners.
Nassrallah said the exchange could take place in two weeks.
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