Police say Jerusalem car crash was a ‘terrorist attack’

Israeli police are treating as a “terrorist attack” a car crash in Jerusalem that left 15 Israeli soldiers injured.

A BMW rammed into a group of soldiers outside the Old City between Arab East Jerusalem and the Jewish West. Four Israeli civilians were injured as well as the 15 soldiers. Two are said to be in a critical condition.

The driver, an Arab inhabitant of Jerusalem, was shot dead. Police said the incident was a terrorist attack, the third involving vehicles in Jerusalem since July. But the driver’s relatives claim it was a traffic accident and that the 19-year old had been in an agitated state due to a spurned marriage proposal.

Israel’s defence minister said afterwards that legal obstacles should be removed to make it easier to demolish the homes of terrorists.

The incident came just hours after Tzipi Livni called for the right-wing Likud party to join the coalition government she has been asked to form. Likud has rejected similar proposals in the past.

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