Netanyahu boosts Jerusalem police presence after attack

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered police strength in Jerusalem to be reinforced after a baby was killed and eight other people injured in a hit-and-run "terror attack" today.
"PM Netanyahu has ordered to reinforce police presence in Jerusalem after a Palestinian terrorist ran over eight people this evening, killing a baby," spokesman Ofir Gendelman wrote on his Twitter account.
During the incident, which took place shortly before 6:00 pm (1500 GMT), a car driven by a Palestinian from east Jerusalem ploughed into a group of pedestrians walking near the Ammunition Hill tram stop, which lies on the seamline between west and occupied east Jerusalem.

As the news broke, Netanyahu held a telephone consultation with Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino and Yoram Cohen, who heads the Shin Bet internal security agency, a statement from his office said.
Gendelman said the driver, who was identified by police as a 21-year-old Palestinian from the flashpoint neighbourhood of Silwan in east Jerusalem, was a member of Hamas.
Netanyahu lashed out at Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, whose Fatah movement signed a reconciliation agreement with Hamas earlier this year, which saw the two factions agreeing on a government of national consensus.
"This is how Abu Mazen's partners in government act, the same Abu Mazen who - only a few days ago - incited toward a terrorist attack in Jerusalem," Netanyahu said, using the Palestinian leader's nickname.

He was referring to comments in which Abbas had pledged to prevent religious Jews from visiting Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound "by all means" following a series of clashes at the site, which is holy to both Muslims and Jews.