Questions plague mother of Jerusalem car attack suspect
Published today (updated) 24/10/2014 11:27
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=735028

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- The mother of a young Palestinian suspected of a car
attack in Jerusalem which killed a baby was on Thursday struggling to answer
questions raised by her son's actions.

Abd al-Rahman al-Shaludi, 21, drove his car at high speed into a group of
pedestrians on Wednesday evening, killing a three-month-old baby and
wounding six other people in what police described as a "hit-and-run terror
attack."

After the car stopped, al-Shaludi tried to flee but was shot by police,
later dying in hospital from his injuries.

Al-Shaludi came from Silwan in annexed East Jerusalem, where many locals
wondered whether the tragedy was just an accident.

At the family home, al-Shaludi's mother Inas Sharif, 42, struggled to come
to terms with the events of the past 24 hours.

"I cannot say if it was on purpose or just a simple car accident," she told
reporters at her home, where she lives with her husband and remaining four
children.

"If it was really an attack, why didn't he have explosives in his car -- or
even just Molotov cocktails?" she said as she served coffee and dates to
women who came to pay their condolences as men gathered outside in a
traditional mourning tent.

Only hours before the incident, she had taken her son to the doctor who had
advised him to see a therapist after days of exhibiting signs of mental
exhaustion.

'I feel her pain'

As a mother, Sharif said she could identify with the loss felt by the woman
whose baby girl was killed.

"I feel her pain, I am a mother after all," she said. "I don't wish any
mother in the world to lose her child."

Outside, chunks of rock and the blackened remains of burnt tires littered
the streets of Silwan, the remains of hours of clashes after the incident.

Al-Shaludi was already known to Israeli police.

He had spent 14 months in prison for stone-throwing and was released in
December 2013. He was arrested again in February and held for 20 days as
Israeli investigators tried to establish whether he was involved with Hamas.
But they found nothing and released him.

Israel has claimed that Shaludi was a Hamas activist.

Although his mother's late brother, Muhi al-Din Sharif, was a senior Hamas
bomb-maker who was killed in the West Bank in 1998, there has been no
independent confirmation Shaludi belonged to the movement.

Since his arrest in February, Israeli investigators had not left him alone,
his mother said. Relatives have said that he was tortured and faced severe
trauma during his time in Israeli prisons.

"They kept on harassing him and summoning him for questioning over and over
again and they tried to enlist him into working for them, but he repeatedly
refused.

"They threatened him, saying he would never find work or be able to continue
his education or have a normal life," she said.

Israel has retained al-Shaludi's body for a post mortem, with the family
expecting it will be handed over on Sunday for burial.

Ma'an staff contributed to this report
===============

Driver in Jerusalem attack was group member: Hamas
23 October 2014 17:21 (Last updated 23 October 2014 17:22)
The group did not, however, claim responsibility for the attack, which had
prompted Israeli police to declare a state of high alert in most of the Old
City on Wednesday.
By Qais Abu Samra RAMALLAH
http://www.aa.com.tr/en/rss/409224--driver-in-jerusalem-attack-was-group-member-hamas

A Palestinian driver who ran over and killed an Israeli baby and injured
eight other people in Jerusalem on Wednesday was a member of Palestinian
resistance faction Hamas, the group said Thursday.

The group did not, however, claim responsibility for the attack, which had
prompted Israeli police to declare a state of high alert in most of the Old
City on Wednesday.

The Gaza-based resistance movement's branch in the occupied West Bank said
in a statement that Palestinian driver Abdel-Rahman al-Sheloudi – who died
at a Jerusalem hospital late Wednesday after being shot by Israeli police in
the wake of the incident – was one of its members.

"The daring Jerusalem operation was a normal and expected reaction to
growing Zionist aggression against citizens and holy sites in all
Palestinian cities," Hamas said in the statement.

The faction went on to laud Palestinian efforts to prevent Israeli settlers
from entering East Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, calling on the
Palestinian people to defend the iconic mosque and confront the "Zionist
siege" imposed on it.

Al-Sheloudi, 23, died late Wednesday at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in
Jerusalem of wounds he sustained when an Israeli policeman shot him in the
immediate wake of the incident, according to Israeli medical sources.

Earlier Wednesday, Israeli medical sources said a baby had died and eight
others were injured when al-Sheloudi ran over pedestrians as they
disembarked from a light rail train in Jerusalem.

Some Hebrew-language media reported that al-Sheloudi was a Hamas activist in
Jerusalem and that he had served for some time in Israeli jails for
committing acts "hostile" to Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Hamas for the incident,
according to Israel Radio.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War. It later
annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the
self-proclaimed Jewish state – a move never recognized by the international
community.

englishnews@aa.com.tr