Terrorist Car-ramming Attack Kills Israeli Policeman

The Fellowship  |  January 18, 2017

Protests broke out today in the southern Israeli town of Umm al-Hiran, and the scene quickly turned deadly. The Times of Israel reports that an Israeli police officer attempting to keep peace was murdered when a terrorist rammed him with a vehicle:

“It was not a car-ramming incident; it was a terror attack that murdered a policeman,” [Public Security Minister Gilad] Erdan told Israel Radio.

Erdan accused Arab lawmakers of inciting the violence, in particular Arab Joint List leader MK Ayman Odeh, who was lightly wounded in the protests.

According to police sources, the driver of the ramming vehicle, identified as local schoolteacher Yaqoub Mousa Abu Al-Qia’an, was shot and killed after driving his Land Cruiser into the police line in the southern town. Police said that the driver was not on a marked road and sped in their direction from a dry riverbed.

Police identified the officer killed as 1st Sgt. Erez Levi, 34, from Yavneh. Senior police official Alon Levavi, deputy head of the Southern District Police, told Israel Radio that Levi was a member of an elite police unit…