Palestinian kills three in Jerusalem bulldozer attack

A Palestinian construction worker rampaged in a bulldozer along one of west Jerusalem's busiest streets yesterday, killing three Israelis as he crushed cars and overturned a bus before being shot dead.

There was no claim of responsibility from militant groups and police said they were trying to establish if 30-year-old Hosam Dwayyat had acted alone. At his family home in the Arab east of the city, there was no sign of the crowds and banners that normally accompany the funerals of Palestinian guerillas.

Neighbours and relatives, including an uncle, said Mr Dwayyat was divorced from a Jewish Israeli. Police said he had a history of drug offences but no known political affiliation.

Mr Dwayyat drove the 20-tonne earthmoving vehicle for 500 metres along Jaffa Road, rolling over cars, crushing some occupants, and ramming into a crowded number 13 bus, flipping it on its side with his mechanical shovel.

Dramatic television footage showed the vehicle later at a standstill and a policeman in the cab, as rescue workers and passersby surveyed the wreckage. However, the bulldozer started moving again and a struggle could be seen inside the cab.

A man in civilian clothes leapt aboard and fired a pistol into the cab, followed by a helmeted policeman in body armour who fired an automatic rifle. The officer later said he fired twice at the wounded driver to ensure he was no further threat.

"The only way to stop him was with a bullet to the head," witness Moshe Oren said afterwards. "We were relieved."

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said the attack "was an act of senseless, murderous violence". An aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called it an attempt to wreck peace negotiations and urged Israel to show restraint in its response.

Mr Abbas's opponents in Hamas and Islamic Jihad said the attack was a "natural" response by Palestinians to Israeli aggression but, nearly two weeks into a truce in the Gaza Strip, neither Islamist group said it was responsible for the incident.

US President George W. Bush called Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to offer condolences, Israeli spokesman Mr Regev said.

Medical officials said more than 40 people were taken to hospital. Two Israeli men and a woman died.

It was the first Arab attack in Jewish west Jerusalem since a gunman killed eight students on March 6 at a rabbinical seminary a short distance from Jaffa Road.

The scene in the aftermath of the incident was reminiscent of numerous suicide bombings that destroyed buses on Jaffa Road during a wave of attacks in 1996 and during the first years of a Palestinian uprising that began in 2000.