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14-Year-Old Killed at Jerusalem Anti-Draft Protest as Bus Driver Is Remanded on Negligent Homicide

Police ruled out a terror motive and are examining video and witness evidence while leaders call for calm.

Overview

  • Authorities identified the victim as Yosef Eizental, 14, a yeshiva student from Jerusalem’s Ramot neighborhood, who was fatally injured near Yirmiyahu, Shamgar and Ohel Yehoshua streets during the mass protest.
  • A Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court judge extended driver Fakhri Khatib’s detention by nine days as police revised initial reports of aggravated murder to suspected negligent homicide, causing severe injury to a minor, and reckless driving.
  • Khatib told investigators he was attacked and tried to escape on a junction police say was kept open to traffic, a characterization protest organizers dispute as they insist the main rally was orderly.
  • Video, eyewitnesses and police accounts indicate the bus accelerated into crowds, struck people at two locations and dragged a teen for hundreds of meters; Magen David Adom pronounced Eizental dead at the scene and treated additional injuries.
  • Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials urged restraint and a full inquiry, and the Transportation Ministry summoned the Extra bus company as investigators continue to review all lines of inquiry.