Arab shot after attempt to blow up gas station

Police shoot Palestinian to death after he allegedly tries to blow up gas station; motive unclear.

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
dead palestinian attacker Maaleh adumim (photo credit: Channel 10)
dead palestinian attacker Maaleh adumim
(photo credit: Channel 10)
A Palestinian man who tried to set fire to a gas station in the Mishor Adumim industrial zone in the West Bank on Thursday was shot dead by police on the scene, police and rescue officials said. The unidentified terrorist, who wounded an Arab gas station attendant during the morning incident east of Jerusalem, is believed to have carried out the attack in response to the IDF assault on Hamas in Gaza, police said. The incident began around 9 a.m. when the attacker drove into the station and asked for a fill-up, recounted Shaher Matab, 39, a gas station attendant. The assailant suddenly began pouring gasoline, which he had in a jerrican, all over the station and then hurled some at the gas attendant as well. "I started screaming," said Matab, who lives in the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras el Amud, and has worked at the station for 14 years. The attacker then began dousing the gasoline on a nearby car, as well as all over the gas pump, Judea and Samaria police spokesman Danny Poleg said. "It was a miracle I got out alive," said motorist Yifat Ben-Said, 26, a resident of Mitzpeh Yericho, who had just pulled into the gas station when the attacker hurled gasoline at her car. Both police and firefighters were summoned to the scene The police found the attacker trying to torch the station, and called out for him to stop and stand still, police said. When he ran towards them with an unidentified object in his hand, police fired warning shots in the air and then shot him dead, the police said. It later emerged that he was holding a fire extinguisher. Police said they later found a bag near the gas station with a Koran and a knife, while an additional knife was found near the assailant's body. The police said that they had no concrete warnings of an impending terror attack, but that their increased presence in the area due to the heightened state of alert nationwide helped them get the scene swiftly. The gas station attendant, who sustained light burns to his head and palms, was rushed to Hadassah-University Hospital at Ein Kerem after being treated on the scene by Magen David Adom medics.