Bulldozer terror rampage in Jerusalem

Death returned to central Jerusalem yesterday when a Palestinian driving a bulldozer killed three Israelis and wounded 45 others as he deliberately careered down one of the city's busiest streets, crushing cars and overturning a bus.

The bulldozer's lethal advance the wrong way down Jaffa Street, leaving a trail of destroyed vehicles before the driver was shot dead by security officers, was the worst attack on Israeli civilians in the city since a gunman shot dead eight yeshiva students in March.

Yesterday's victims were killed as the bulldozer ploughed into their cars during its zig-zag down the street, a main artery of West Jerusalem. The Israeli deputy police commissioner, Shahar Ayalon, said at the scene it was "definitely a terrorist attack" by the 30-year-old construction worker who – like the perpetrator of the yeshiva killings – came from Arab East Jerusalem.

Mr Ayalon backed calls by Israeli ministers for the driver's home to be demolished but, despite a series of claims of responsibility by smaller armed Palestinian factions, police said last night they believed the attacker, Hussam Dwayat, had been acting alone. The Israeli police chief Dudi Cohen said it appeared to be a "spontaneous" act.

One woman was killed when the bulldozer drove into, and then ran over, her blue saloon shortly before the 20-tonne vehicle came to a halt. The mangled remains of the car were still piled behind the bulldozer two hours later. Police would not confirm reports last night that the woman managed to save the life of her baby daughter by throwing her out of the car before being hit.

A witness, David Huweida, 51, said: "I saw the bulldozer ploughing into cars; ploughing towards the bus stop to run over pedestrians. He lifted people with his shovel. He lifted a man and tried to crush him but the man was lucky and he didn't succeed."

"He mounted a bus but didn't succeed in turning it over. But the next bus he reached, he overturned. People climbed up on the bulldozer and tried to stop him. They wounded him and we thought it was over. But then it was as if he became revived and, after slumping down, he lifted up his head and he continued."

A paramedic, Gedalya Sabiner, treated the wounded at the scene and helped as rescue workers retrieved the corpse of a woman from the crushed blue vehicle. "I think she was in her thirties," he said. "I saw a baby carriage in the car. Everything has been so peaceful here – like a paradise. Now we will not be able to trust anyone."

The bulldozer drove past the city's main broadcasting centre and BBC footage shows it crushing a vehicle, and a security officer shooting the perpetrator in the head several times at point-blank range. The BBC correspondent Tim Franks, a witness, said a bank security guard had said he had earlier shot but not killed the driver.

Injured passengers had crawled out of the toppled bus after the impact shattered the windows. Police said none of the passengers had died in the bus but a single bloodstained finger was protruding from the rubber lining below the bus's windows on the side that had hit the ground. Further up Jaffa Street, the wreckage of a white Citroë*van all but bisected by the bulldozer marked the spot where police said a man was killed. Beside it lay a grey saloon on its side, its windscreen shattered, from which the driver had escaped.

Police said that the attacker had wrecked three cars before he got to Jaffa Street, after leaving the construction site where he had apparently worked. He drove up an approach road to the main Sarei Yisrael road, a busy dual carriageway that is close to the central bus station. He turned left into the incoming traffic and then turned left again to begin his progress down Jaffa Street.

At the attacker's home in the hilltop Sur Bahir district of Arab East Jerusalem, police left in jeeps after questioning relatives. Several dozen neighbours gathered outside the family's house remained silent as a female relative of the dead assailant cried out from a first-floor balcony: "May God have mercy on him, he is a martyr, God will have mercy."

Relatives and neighbours said they were not aware of the man having any connection to an armed faction. The PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned the attack. But a statement purporting to be from Islamic Jihad on an Islamic website, seen by some observers as a responsibility claim, said that the killings had been a "normal reaction to the crimes of the Zionist occupation

Hamas also said it was a "natural reaction to the daily aggression and crimes committed against our people".

Portrait of a father who killed

Hussam Dwayat was married to a Palestinian Muslim and had two sons,aged five and seven. The 30-year-old had served a two-year jail sentence for an unspecified offence. One neighbour said it stemmed from a dispute with his former wife, a Russian-Israeli. He had an East Jerusalem identity card, which is given to most residents of the Arab sector of the city and permits holders to travel through Israel, including West Jerusalem. This is off-limits to West Bank Palestinians. One neighbour, Rateb Shehadeh, 60, said: "No one knows what happened to him. No one knows why he did this. I know the Russian woman complained against him and he went to prison. I don't know exactly what the problem was between them."A relative said Dwayat had dealt drugs, but Mr Shehadeh said the killer had been "quiet" since his second marriage. Associated Press quoted a Palestinian support group saying that Dwayat was fined $50,000 (£27,000) for building his house without a permit.

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