Palestinian rams car into crowd at East Jerusalem station

A Palestinian man identified by Hamas as one of its members rammed his minivan into a crowded train platform in east Jerusalem on Wednesday and then attacked people with an iron bar after leaving the vehicle, killing one person and injuring 13 before he was shot dead by police. A Hamas statement called the attack an act of "revenge" for Israeli actions in Jerusalem.

The Islamist movement claimed responsibility for the attack, which was the second such assault in east Jerusalem in the past two weeks and came amid heightened tensions between Israelis and Palestinians over control of the city. The admission of responsibility by Hamas will raise anxiety over the potential for new hostilities in Gaza, the movement's stronghold — Israel's 50-day assault on the territory last summer was launched in retaliation for the killing of three teenage settlers in Hebron, a crime that Israel pinned on Hamas.

Earlier Wednesday, Israeli police had dispersed dozens of masked Palestinians who had thrown rocks and fireworks near the contested holy sites known in Judaism as the Temple Mount and to Islam as the Noble Sanctuary, in the portion of Jerusalem occupied by Israel since the war of June 1967. Neighboring Jordan, which maintains custodial rights over the Al-Aqsa mosque in the Noble Sanctuary, recalled its ambassador to Israel for consultations in a gesture of protest over events in east Jerusalem.

Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday blamed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for the latest car attack in Jerusalem. 

“The vehicular terror attack today in Jerusalem is the direct result of incitement by Abu Mazen [Abbas] and his partner Hamas,” Netanyahu said. “We are in a prolonged battle for Jerusalem and I have no doubt that we will win it. We are employing all the necessary powers to restore quiet and security to the city.”

Police said Ibrahim al-Akri, a 38-year-old Palestinian, slammed his white minivan into the train platform first, then backed out and proceeded to drive away, hitting several cars along the way. He subsequently got out of the car and attacked a group of civilians and police officers on the side of the road with a metal bar before he was shot and killed. 

Israeli police said that "one person was killed and about a dozen people were injured in the terror attack." Akri, they said, had recently been released from prison after serving time for security offenses.

In a statement reported by the Associated Press, Hamas — which controls the Gaza Strip — said Akri was a member of the group, and that his brother was in exile in Turkey after being released in a 2011 prisoner swap. Hamas' West Bank commander, Saleh Arouri, is based in Turkey.

The organization said in a statement that Akri, "whose blood watered the land of the occupied holy city of Jerusalem, preferred but to retaliate for the blood of his people and the sacredness of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem."

Israeli authorities had no immediate response to the Hamas claim. 

The attack was almost identical to one two weeks ago, also committed by a Palestinian from east Jerusalem who rammed his car into a crowded train station, killing a 3-month-old Israeli-American girl and a woman from Ecuador — not far from the scene of Wednesday's attack.

Analysts told Al Jazeera that the attacks against the light rail are likely politically motivated. 

Israeli authorities have long touted the public transportation system to the international community as a symbol of “coexistence” with Palestinians. But many Palestinians view the system as another example of Israel expanding its occupation by creating new “facts on the ground,” asserting control over parts of Jerusalem where Israel’s sovereignty is not internationally recognized.

“[The light rail] is definitely a symbol of Israel’s view of Jerusalem as one contiguous Jewish territory and to that we have to add the continuous settlement and occupying of east Jerusalem,” Daniel Goldenblatt, Israeli co-CEO of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI), told Al Jazeera following last week's attack.

East Jerusalem has experienced unrest since this summer, with Palestinian youths throwing stones and firebombs at motorists and clashing frequently with Israeli police.

Israel captured east Jerusalem — with its sites sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians — from Jordan in the 1967 war. Palestinians demand the territory for their future capital. The fate of the area is an emotional issue for Jews and Muslims, and its future lies at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Much of the recent unrest has focused around a sacred compound revered by both Jews and Muslims. It includes Judaism's holiest site, known as the Temple Mount because of the Jewish Temples that stood there in biblical times. Muslims refer to it as the Noble Sanctuary, on which stands their third holiest site, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

Wednesday's car attack came shortly after clashes in the Old City, where Palestinians threw rocks and firecrackers at police to protest a planned visit to a key holy site by Israeli supporters of a incendiary rabbi who was shot by a Palestinian gunman last week.

The Israelis had planned on commemorating a week since the attack on American-Israeli activist Yehuda Glick, who has campaigned for more Jewish access to the location. Palestinians view such visits as a provocation and often respond with protests. Glick remains in serious condition.

Palestinians view Jewish prayer at the site as a provocation, and Israeli authorities place tough restrictions on it. Everyone visiting the area from the Israeli side has to be screened by police.

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press