Some 16 people were wounded in Monday’s bus bombing in Jerusalem. The identity of the most severely injured person remains unknown, as police try to ascertain whether he was the bomber, or just an innocent bystander.
The driver of the bus, however, has stated that the man was indeed the terrorist, and that security officials at the hospital confirmed as much.
The driver, Moshe Levy, spoke with BeHadrei Haredim on Tuesday, and recalled the incident and his encounter with the alleged terrorist.
“The [bus] ride was normal; I saw the terrorist get on the bus at one of the stations. The terrorist boarded and paid just like everyone else. He didn’t look suspicious to me, and he wasn’t carrying a strange bag or something. No, I didn’t suspect him.”
“Then all of the sudden, on Baram Street there was a lot of traffic and then we heard a big explosion. Then another huge explosion.”
The bomb, which had been placed at the back of the bus, wounded passengers in the aft section, but left those in the front of the bus, including Levy, relatively unscathed.
“I saw lots of people bleeding and screaming. I ran out of the bus and opened the [emergency] doors. Outside there were people who had been thrown out of the bus [by the blast]. I saw the terrorist lying on the ground, with severed hands and feet. I told the MDA people to treat him.”
When I got to the hospital I saw this man lying on the ground in the emergency treatment ward, I understood from the security people there that this was the terrorist. And I had asked them [the MDA medics] to help him.”
Police officials have yet to say if the severely injured man in question was indeed the terrorist.
The initial investigation suggests that the bomb was placed beneath the man’s legs, and likely detonated prematurely - indicating that he did not intend to be a suicide bomber. The wounded man was carrying no form of identification, and police are attempting to identify him with a DNA test.