Three female soldiers and one male soldier, all in their early 20s, were declared dead at the scene, which was called a mass-casualty incident.
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According to Yossi Fraenkel, deputy commander of ZAKA in Jerusalem, 11 of the wounded are in light condition, four are in either serious or moderate condition, and one is in critical condition.
All victims were evacuated to different area hospitals.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited the scene with Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, said the terrorist was identified as Fadi al-Qanbar, from the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, long a hotbed of incitement and violence.
\u201cWe know the identity of the attacker, and according to all the signs, he is a supporter of Islamic State,\u201d Netanyahu said.
He added that there may be a connection between this attack and similar attacks recently in France and Berlin.
\u201cWe are fighting this plague, and will defeat it,\u201d Netanyahu said, noting that Jabel Mukaber has been cordoned off, and that \u201cwe are taking other actions that I will not detail here.\u201d
\u201cWe will overcome this terror, just as we overcame other attacks,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are a number of actions that we will not specify at this time, which we will have to take to ensure that incidents such as these do not recur.\u201d
Soon after visiting the site, Netanyahu was scheduled to convene a meeting of the security cabinet.
Magen David Adom spokesman Elli Zenilman said the first-responders received a call reporting the attack at approximately 1:30 p.m.
\u201cAmbulances and intensive care units of Magen David Adom were immediately dispatched,\u201d said Zenilman, a few meters from the carnage, cordoned-off by police.
\u201cWhen we arrived at the scene, we saw something that was horrifying \u2013 young adults lying on the street in the area of the attack.\u201d
MDA paramedic Landy Sharon said he saw a truck that hit a group of young people that got off a bus near the Armon Hanatziv observation post.
\u201cAbout 10 people were lying on the ground near the street,\u201d he said. \u201cSome of them were trapped under the truck.\u201d
ZAKA Jerusalem Commander Bentzi Oering described the scene as reminiscent of a battlefield.
\u201cThis is a very difficult attack,\u201d he said. \u201cI arrived with other ZAKA volunteers and the scene looked like a battlefield. Many injured lay on the grass, some of them were still trapped under the terrorist\u2019s truck.\u201d
ZAKA Jerusalem Operations Commander Meir Akar said a crane from the firefighters was used to lift the front part of truck to free those trapped underneath.
\u201cTragically, they were no longer alive,\u201d he said.
\u201cA team from the forensics department of the Israel Police and ZAKA carried out the initial identification of the dead. ZAKA then removed the bodies of the four victims and the terrorist. Another ZAKA team remains at the scene to clear the significant amount of blood and remains to bring them to burial.\u201d
The truck\u2019s windshield was riddled with bullet holes, as dozens of first-responders, police and fire-rescue personnel secured the scene and completely closed off traffic on the main thoroughfare next to the popular promenade.
Speaking to the press minutes after the attack, Police Commissioner, Insp.- Gen. Roni Alsheich, said al-Qanbar had a valid Israeli driver\u2019s license and plate.
Alsheich added that there was no prior warning of the attack, but that police have set up checkpoints in Jabel Mukaber and heightened security throughout the capital.
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Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat spoke during an impromptu press conference to dozens of reporters.
\u201cTo our dismay, there is no limit to the cruelty of the terrorists who are willing to use any means possible to murder Jews and to damage the life routine of Israel\u2019s capital,\u201d said Barkat.
\u201cThose who incite and fan the flames of terror must pay a heavy price,\u201d he added. \u201cI call the residents of Jerusalem and the country at large to be alert, and despite this hard terror attack, to carry on in your daily routines, and do not let terror win.\u201d
On Twitter, Hamas lauded the attack as \u201cheroic,\u201d although did not take credit.
\u201cThe truck operation in Jerusalem affirms that all attempts to encircle the [Palestinian] intifada will fail,\u201d the Palestinian terrorist group wrote.
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