JERUSALEM — A Hamas militant slammed a minivan into a crowd waiting for a train Wednesday in Jerusalem, killing one person and wounding 13.
Hours later, the Israeli military said a Palestinian motorist drove into a group of soldiers in the West Bank, injuring three.
The incidents and a similar attack two weeks earlier raised concern that Israel could be facing a new type of threat. Police said they would put concrete barricades in front of train stations as a first step.
Police identified the van’s driver — who was killed by police — as Ibrahim al-Akari, a 38-year-old Palestinian. His wife said he was angered by a confrontation between police and Palestinians at the Al-Aqsa Mosque earlier in the day in which part of the shrine was damaged.
Hamas praised the van attack as a defense of the mosque, which is part of a complex in the city’s most sensitive and sacred site — the compound known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount.
It was not clear how much damage there was at the mosque. Israeli police had dispersed dozens of masked Palestinians who threw rocks and firecrackers near the site in the Old City ahead of a visit by a group of Jewish activists.
Neighboring Jordan recalled its ambassador to Israel for consultations in a strong protest of the police action at the site and filed a complaint to the U.N. Security Council. Under an arrangement with Israel, Jordan has custodial rights over Muslim holy sites in the Old City, which includes the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry condemned what he called “the terrorist attack in Jerusalem,” and added that “the confrontation at the Al-Aqsa Mosque is also of particular concern.”
“Holy sites should not become the sites of tension, and concrete steps need to be taken now by all sides to de-escalate this situation,” Kerry said, noting that the U.S. was in touch with both Jordan and Israel and hoped that “all parties will draw back and reduce these tensions.”
The developments raised fears of worsening violence after months of simmering tensions in the holy city and injected new religious fervor into a wave of unrest fueled by failed peace efforts and stepped-up Jewish settlement construction.
