Six Israelis wounded in terrorist shooting
According to police, the Palestinian terrorist opened fire at a group, including diners at a burger restaurant in a plaza outside a main shopping mall.
(Times of Israel) – SIX Israelis were shot and wounded, one of them seriously, in a terror attack in the West Bank city of Ma’ale Adumim on Tuesday.
According to police, the Palestinian terrorist – 20-year-old Mohannad Muhammad Suleiman al-Mazra’a – opened fire at a group, including diners at a burger restaurant in a plaza outside a main shopping mall, before being shot dead by an off-duty police officer.
The Magen David Adom (MDA) ambulance service said one of the victims, a man in his 40s, was listed in serious condition. Four victims – a 14-year-old boy and men aged 28, 29 and 37 – were listed in moderate condition, MDA said. Another man in his 20s was lightly hurt.
The six were taken to the Shaare Zedek Medical Centre and Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus in Jerusalem for treatment.
Police said an off-duty Border Police officer, who was about to get a haircut at a nearby barber shop, heard gunfire and shouting. He rushed to the scene to search for the terrorist, who had fled.
“The terrorist started shooting at the officer,” police said, adding that he engaged with the gunman and killed him.
Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai and the head of the Border Police, Deputy Commissioner Brik Yitzhak, spoke with the officer who shot the terrorist.
“I saw a man wearing a reflective vest with a handgun. I wasn’t sure yet if this was the terrorist. I called on him to stop and cocked my gun. He didn’t stop and started to open fire at me. The moment he fired at me I realised it was the terrorist,” the officer told Shabtai.
Shabtai said the terrorist “opened fire in all directions” and the officer “prevented a broader terror attack”.
Footage showed the terrorist, wearing a fluorescent yellow vest, opening fire at people from within bushes behind a bus stop, then fleeing down a road, where he was shot by the Border Police officer.
A worker at the restaurant described the moment of the terror attack to the Kan public broadcaster. “The terrorist was standing outside [the restaurant] and fired two or three shots, hitting one of my customers,” Ravid, who works at Burgers Bar, said. “Another bullet flew by my face and hit the wall.”
Another one of the victims in the attack was the barber of the officer who killed the terrorist.
Speaking to reporters from his hospital bed, Moshe Turgeman said he was cutting a customer’s hair when the officer – one of his regulars – came in. “He just sat down. We heard gunfire and saw people running outside,” he recalled.
Turgeman said the two then went searching for the terrorist, and at one point apparently passed by the gunman without realising it was him, noting the fluorescent vest he was wearing.
He said people then yelled from nearby buildings that the man in the vest was the attacker, leading them to double back after him.
“He shot me, he succeeded in hitting me in the hand,” Turgeman said, “and [shot] another guy near me in the leg. The heroic Border Police officer just took him out in a few seconds. We got out miraculously.”
The Shin Bet said al-Mazra’a worked as a cleaner at a local community centre in Ma’ale Adumim.
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