Police: Ma’aleh Adumim ramming may not have been terrorism
Police are currently investigating the strong possibility that suspect may have stolen the car and attempted to run the checkpoint in order to evade arrest.
By BEN HARTMANUpdated: OCTOBER 9, 2015 04:14Scene of attempted vehicular terror attack near Ma'aleh Adumim
There are indications that an incident that left two security personnel wounded Wednesday night may have been a criminal incident and not a terror attack, Judea and Samaria Police said Thursday.On Wednesday night, a Palestinian motorist attempted to run down a border policeman at the a-Zaim security checkpoint near Ma’aleh Adumim and was shot and moderately wounded. The checkpoint is northeast of the capital’s French Hill neighborhood, on the road to the Dead Sea.On Thursday, police said that “there is growing evidence to indicate it was a criminal incident,” including the fact that the driver was in a vehicle with stolen plates and using a fake Israeli ID card.Police are currently investigating the possibility that he may have stolen the car and attempted to run the checkpoint in order to evade arrest.The incident at a-Zaim came shortly after a stabbing attack in Petah Tikva that left one Israeli badly wounded on Jabotinsky Street, one of the busiest thoroughfares in central Israel.Police said Thursday that greater tragedy was averted however, when the knife wielded by the Palestinian attacker broke in his hand just as he attacked his victim, preventing him from stabbing anyone else.Sharon subdistrict police said that the blade wielded by 25-year-old Tamer Yunes Ahmed Varidat snapped off at the handle of the knife immediately after he plunged it into a 25-year-old Israeli man who had just gotten off a bus on Jabotinsky Street.In surveillance camera footage of the attack, the terrorist, after the stabbing, can be seen pacing along the sidewalk, seemingly looking for another victim, even though he is suddenly unarmed. Within moments he was apprehended by bystanders, who held him until police arrived.The incident was one of several attacks across Israel on Wednesday that left almost a dozen Israelis wounded.