Driver of bus in terror attack made emergency stop so passengers could escape

The driver of the bus where a terror stabbing took place this morning, tells of the moment he realized there was a problem and told the passengers to evacuate.

“I made an emergency stop, opened the doors and asked the passengers to get off,” Muhammad Sa’id tells the Ynet news site. “I never thought I would be at an event like this.”

Sa’id, a resident of East Jerusalem, is currently being treated at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center for anxiety in the wake of the incident.

The driver’s father tells Channel 12 news that his son recounted the incident to him.

“What I understood from him is that he was driving and picked up a passenger at Elazar Junction. One stop later, at the traffic lights for the Neve Daniel junction, he suddenly heard shots. He looked back in the mirror, and saw someone with a gun shoot someone else. He opened the two doors straight away so that people could get off the bus quickly,” the father says. “The terrorist got on the bus at Elazar Junction. My son is very scared and they are helping him calm down now.”

On the bus, a 28-year-old Israeli man was seriously wounded when he was assaulted by another passenger, a Palestinian armed with a screwdriver, near the West Bank settlement of Neve Daniel, south of Jerusalem.

The victim underwent what the hospital described as life-saving surgery and is now in intensive care where he remains in serious condition.

The attacker, identified by Palestinian health officials as Nidal Juma’a Ja’afra, 30, was shot dead by an armed passenger on the bus.

The stabbing comes amid one of the worst terror waves in recent year, which has seen 11 people killed since last week: four people in a stabbing and ramming attack in Beersheba, two in a shooting in Hadera, and five in a shooting in Bnei Brak.

Security forces have been placed on high alert and ordered to crack down on any potential terror cells and individuals seen as a possible danger, both inside Israel and in the West Bank.

Officials have warned that the Muslim holy month of Ramadan — which is set to begin over the weekend — could raise tensions still further.

Israeli cabinet ministers decided on Wednesday night not to initiate a crackdown on Palestinians over Ramadan so as not to feed an escalation of violence.