03-Aug-15: A firebomb attack on an Israeli car in Jerusalem

The scene of tonight's attack [Image Source]

We were alerted to trouble, as has happened many times in the past, by the shrill sounds of emergency vehicles on the highway that passes closes to our Jerusalem home. The very warm evening, the open windows, the still air - all helped ensure the tension spread quickly.

The reports in the past hour on the major Israeli news channels - television, various breaking-news websites, text messages, Twitter - say there has been a firebomb attack on an Israeli car traveling on one of the major roads of north Jerusalem:

Two people were injured in a Jerusalem firebombing attack on Monday night. A 27-year-old Israeli woman was moderately hurt by the Molotov cocktail, suffering burns on her body, Channel 2 reported. The car she was riding in rammed into a nearby car, lightly injuring the driver of the other vehicle. The woman was evacuated to the Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem, and the injured man was transferred to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center for treatment. The attack took place near the Beit Hanina neighborhood in East Jerusalem. [Times of Israel, August 3, 2015]

Still in flames [Image Source]

Beit Hanina, an Arab neighbourhood of Jerusalem, is served by the Jerusalem Light Rail, giving its 27,000 residents (up from 1,600 in 1945 - the proximity to Israel's fast-growing capital city has always served as a magnet for Arab immigration) easy access to downtown and other parts of the city. It's a prosperous part of town with a villa precinct that is home to some prominent Palestinian Arab figures including the former PA prime minister Salam Fayyad.

Ynet adds some detail:

The wounded woman's husband managed to escape the vehicle unharmed. A passerby, around 20 years old, who tried to put out the fire that broke out was lightly hurt from smoke inhalation. Another man was lightly hurt when the car rolled back and hit another vehicle - which was partially damaged. The vehicle was completely burned. The woman... is suffering from first- and second-degree burns on 15 percent of her body, was taken to Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem's Ein Karem, while the man was taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in the capital. Police and Border Police forces were dispatched to the area and are searching for suspects. [Ynet]

We are hearing helicopters overhead suggesting the search is still fully underway at this hour (21:30).

Inevitably, some of the reports frame the attack on an Israeli car as an Arab response to the lethal firebombing this past Friday morning ["31-Jul-15: In the wake of a lethal arson attack"] in Duma, a Palestinian Arab village near Nablus.