Four Israeli soldiers killed in a truck ramming in Jerusalem by a Palestinian assailant are to be buried as Israeli police said they had arrested nine people in connection with the attack.

The victims of Sunday’s attack have been named as Lt Yael Yakutiel, 20, of Givatayim, and cadets Shir Hajaj, 22, from the settlement of Maale Adumim, Shira Tzur, 20, from Haifa, and Erez Orbach, 20, who came from the West Bank settlement of Alon Shvut and was a US-Israeli citizen.

The nine detained included family members of Fadi al-Qanbar, the Palestinian who drove his truck into a group of soldiers disembarking from a bus at a popular tourist outlook in Jerusalem during a visit organised for officer trainees.

The attack also left a fifth soldier in a coma in intensive care and 17 other people injured.

The UN security council joined other world leaders in condemning the attack. “The members of the security council condemned in the strongest terms the terrorist attack in Jerusalem,” the UN said.

Hajaj’s mother, Meirav, told Israeli media that when the family learned of the attack they had initially thought tourists would have been the target, not realising that Shir was also visiting the promenade.

“We stood by the door, praying that they (the officers tasked with informing soldiers’ families of their death) wouldn’t come,” she told the Ynet news site. “And every minute they didn’t come, we said it was a good thing. I called hospitals, local IDF [Israel Defence Forces] offices and everywhere else.

Her father added: “These are our children, we send them to the army knowing they may not come back. Did I ever think this would happen to me? Never.”

The attack, the deadliest in months, came at a time of warnings about growing tensions, not least over Donald Trump’s controversial plan to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, and calls from some rightwing Israeli ministers to annex parts of the occupied Palestinian territories.

The attack drew a confused and angry response from Israeli political figures and analysts, with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister Avigdor Lieberman trying to connect it to Islamic State.

Despite some similarities to truck attacks in Berlin and Nice in 2016, which were claimed by Isis, the use of vehicles by Palestinian attackers for deadly assaults has a history that predates last year.

Others said the ramming appeared to have had more in common with the wave of lone-wolf attacks that have taken place in Israel and the Palestinian territories over the past 15 months.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, and Palestinians with no known links to Isis have carried out ramming attacks in the past.

The attack was welcomed, however, in statements by the Islamist group Hamas. “This truck attack shows that any attempt to put a stop to the resistance will fail,” the group’s military wing tweeted.

Qanbar’s sister said: “He didn’t belong to any group or political movement. He carried out the attack on his own.”

Israeli police said the driver was from Jabel Mukaber, an area of Israeli-occupied east Jerusalem not far from the scene of the attack. Some media reports suggested Israeli licence plates on the vehicle meant it had been stolen.

Qanbar was shot dead by other soldiers and a tour guide.

Graphic security camera footage shot from a distance showed the truck racing towards a group of soldiers standing by their bus and then driving through the group, scattering bodies. After a few seconds the truck is seen reversing into them.

Commenting on the arrests after the attack, a police spokeswoman, Luba Samri, said five of the attacker’s relatives were among those detained. They are all from Jabel Mukaber.

Police used concrete slabs on Monday to block some entrances to the neighbourhood, and a police officer checked each departing vehicle.

Overnight, officers said, Palestinians shot fireworks at Israeli forces at a police post near the neighbourhood.

The attack came amid a charged mood in Israel after last week’s manslaughter conviction for an Israeli soldier who fatally shot a wounded Palestinian attacker.</s>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Jerusalem truck attacker who killed four Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers on Sunday (8 January) was a supporter of the Islamic State (Isis) terror group.

During a visit to the scene of the incident, the PM said that there could be a connection between the attacks that took place in Berlin and Nice – responsibility for which were claimed by IS .

The man, allegedly responsible for the Jerusalem attack, was killed by police. He was identified as Fadi al-Qanbar from the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Jabal Mukabar. According to reports, he rammed his truck into a crowd gathered near the Armon Hanatziv Promenade overlooking the walled Old City of Jerusalem.

A dozen people were injured, while three female and a male solider were killed in the incident. The IDF identified the four soldiers who died in the attack as Yael Yekutiel (20), Shir Hajaj (22), Erez Orbach (20) and Shira Tzur (20).

The IDF also tweeted that Hamas had lauded the truck attacker, calling the carnage "heroic".

Hazaem Qassem, spokesman for the Izz Ad-Din Al-Qassam Brigades — Hamas' military wing – wrote on Facebook that "the continuous operations in the West Bank and Jerusalem prove that the Jerusalem Intifada is not an isolated event, but rather a decision by the Palestinian people to revolt until they attain their freedom and liberation from the Israeli occupation", according to The Times of Israel.

Meanwhile, the prime minister and Defence Minister Avigdor Liberman visited the crime scene and watched the footage of the attack that was captured on CCTV cameras.

Terming the incident a "vicious and tragic terror attack", Netanyahu said: "We know the identity of the attacker and according to all the signs he is a supporter of the Islamic State.

"I have just come from a meeting with the defence minister, the chief of staff, the head of the Shin Bet and others about steps we need to take. We know that these are a series of attacks and there definitely could be a link between them, from France to Berlin, and now Jerusalem."

The attack on a Christmas market in Berlin took place last month, killing 12 people and leaving dozens more injured. A similar attack was carried out in Nice, France in July 2016 during Bastille Day celebrations, which claimed the lives of 84 people.

Talking about the Berlin, Nice and Jerusalem attacks being inspired by the Islamist group, the defence minister said that the only reason for the attack on Jerusalem was because "we are Jews living here in the State of Israel" and it was "not because of Jewish settlements and not because of the peace talks", The Times of Israel reported.

Netanyahu said that authorities had imposed a closure on the Jabel Mukabar neighborhood of East Jerusalem, where the attacker came from. He added that other steps were being taken to deal with the situation, but did not elaborate on the attacker being linked to Isis militants.

"We will overcome this terror, just as we overcame other attacks. There 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," the Jerusalem Post quoted the prime minister as saying.

According to local media reports, al-Qanbar was in his late 20s, married with four children, and had served time in Israeli prison. He is believed to have purchased the truck recently.</s>Four Israeli soldiers were killed and more than 15 other people were injured Sunday when a truck slammed into a group of soldiers at a Jerusalem bus stop before the assailant was fatally shot, police said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited the scene, said the attacker has been identified and “according to all the signs he was a supporter of the Islamic State.”

He said there “definitely could be a connection” between Sunday's incident and recent truck attacks in France and Germany, the Associated Press reported.

Police chief Roni Alsheich described the crash as a terror attack. He said the truck driver was from an Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

"You don't need more than two to three seconds to find a terrorist target," he told the Haaretz newspaper. "The soldiers at the scene reacted immediately and killed the attacker."

The assailant speeded up and veered his truck into a group that had just exited the bus, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told TheJerusalem Post. Police heightened security throughout the capital and closed off neighborhoods near the scene, he said. Israel's security cabinet met to discuss fallout from the crash.

Paramedic Landy Sharon told reporters the truck had hit a group of young people. Military service of two years or more is mandatory for most Israelis over 18.

“About 10 people were lying on the ground near the street,” Sharno said. “Some of them were trapped under the truck.”

Leah Schreiber, told Haaretz he was an instructor who had been on the bus with the soldiers.

"A few minutes after we arrived, while I was talking about the Jerusalem landscape, I heard screaming behind me," he said. "I turned around a saw the truck getting on the sidewalk. Soldiers who were in the area started shooting at the truck. At first they couldn't kill him."

The Palestinian Hamas movement praised the attack but did not claim responsibility. Hamas spokesman Abdul-Latif Qanou called it a “heroic” act and encouraged other Palestinians to do the same.

Sunday's attack is the latest in a series of attacks by Palestinians on Israelis, mostly vehicle rammings and knife attacks. Since September 2015, Palestinian attackers have killed 40 Israelis and two visiting Americans — and 230 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis combating the attacks and other clashes, according to the AP.

Sunday’s attack marks the first Israeli deaths in three months.</s>A Palestinian rammed his truck into a group of Israeli soldiers on a popular promenade in Jerusalem on Sunday, killing four of them in an attack that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said was likely inspired by Islamic State.

It was the deadliest Palestinian attack in Jerusalem in months and targeted officer cadets as they disembarked from a bus that brought them to the Armon Hanatziv promenade, which has a panoramic view of the walled Old City.

The military said a female officer and three officer cadets were killed and that 17 others were injured. Police said three of the dead were women.

Police identified the truck driver as a Palestinian from Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem and said he was shot dead. His uncle, Abu Ali, named him as Fadi Ahmad Hamdan Qunbor, 28, a father of four from the Jabel Mukabar neighbourhood.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that nine Jabel Mukabar residents, including five members of the attacker’s family, were arrested on suspicion of aiding the attacker.

The Israeli military regularly takes soldiers on educational tours of Jerusalem, including the Armon Hanatziv vantage point.

Netanyahu visited the scene and convened his security Cabinet, a forum of senior ministers, to discuss Israel’s response. He said that security forces were controlling access in and out of the neighbourhood.

“We know the identity of the attacker. According to all the signs he is a supporter of Islamic State,” the prime minister said.

A government source said ministers had called for the demolition of the attacker’s home and for his body not to be returned to the family for burial. It also decided to detain without trial persons expressing sympathy for Islamic State.

The United States condemned the attack “in the strongest terms” and offered to help Israel work to determine who was behind the attack, National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement that also expressed condolences for the victims.

Roni Alsheich, the national police chief, told reporters he could not rule out that the driver had been motivated by a truck-ramming attack in a Berlin Christmas market that killed 12 people last month.

“It is difficult to get into the head of every individual to determine what prompted him, but there is no doubt that these things do have an effect,” Alsheich told reporters.

In another attack claimed by Islamic State and involving a truck driven into a crowd, nearly 90 people were killed in the French city of Nice in July.

Actions inspired by Islamic State in Israel, the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem have been rare and only a few dozen Arab Israelis and Palestinians are known to have declared their sympathy with the militant group.

A wave of Palestinian street attacks, including vehicle rammings, has largely slowed but not stopped completely since it began in October 2015, with 37 Israelis and two visiting Americans killed in those assaults.

At least 231 Palestinians have been killed in violence in Israel, the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the same period. Israel says that at least 157 of them were assailants while others died during clashes and protests, blaming the violence on incitement by the Palestinian leadership.

The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, denies that allegation, and says assailants have acted out of frustration over Israeli occupation of land sought by Palestinians in peace talks that have stalled since 2014.

Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip, routinely praises those who carry out street attacks, and did so on Sunday.

“We bless this heroic operation resisting the Israeli occupation to force it to stop its crimes and violations against our people,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told Reuters.

Nickolay Mladenov, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, sent his condolences to the families while condemning the attack and those praising it.

“It is reprehensible that some choose to glorify such acts which undermine the possibility of a peaceful future for both Palestinians and Israelis,” Mladenov said in a statement.

Security camera footage showed the truck racing towards the soldiers and then reversing into them.

A security guard identified only as “A” told Channel 10 how he shot at the truck and its driver.

“I shot at a tyre but realised there was no point as he has many wheels, so I ran in front of the cabin and at an angle, I shot at him and emptied my magazine,” he said.

“When I finished shooting, some of the officer cadets also took aim and also started firing.”

The footage showed many of the soldiers fleeing the scene as the attack took place, their rifles slung on their shoulders.

As a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem, the truck driver would carry an Israeli identity card and be able to move freely through all of the city. Israel considers all of Jerusalem its united capital, a stance not supported by the international community.

This developments comes days after the Jordanian government warned U.S. President-elect Donald Trump that there will be “catastrophic” consequences if he decides to move ahead with his campaign pledge to relocate the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Moving Washington’s diplomatic representation to the contested city, shared by Christians, Jews and Muslims, would mark a “red line” for Jordan, the Hashemite Kingdom’s Information Minister and government spokesman Mohammed Momani told the Associated Press Thursday.

He warned that Amman would use all of its diplomatic and political levers to prevent the move. It is the first reaction from the Jordanian government to the planned relocation.

Momani said that the decision would “inflame the Islamic and Arab streets” as it is a highly sensitive issue for Muslims in the Middle East and around the world. Moving the embassy would be a “gift to extremists,” he said, one that would “have catastrophic implications on several levels, including the regional situation.”

The move would be controversial as the U.S. would effectively recognize Jerusalem, a contested city, as Israel’s capital. The Palestinians have earmarked east Jerusalem as part of any future state, and it houses some of the most important Muslim landmarks in the world, including the Haram al-Sharif (“Noble Sanctuary” in Arabic) which is known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

Israel seized control of east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War and the area, as well as the West Bank, has been at the heart of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians ever since. Much of the international community does not recognize Israel’s capture of the territories. The Obama administration and its predecessors have maintained that the status of Jerusalem be decided through direct negotiations between both sides.</s>A truck rammed into a crowd of soldiers on a popular promenade in Jerusalem on Sunday, killing at least four people and wounding 15 others, officials said, in an attack that the prime minister said was carried out by a supporter of ISIS.

Magen David Adom ambulance service said four soldiers — three women and a man — had been pronounced dead. One severely wounded person was evacuated to a hospital.

The Israel Defense Forces identified the four as: Yael Yakotiel, 20, of Givatyim; Shir Hagag, 22, of Ma'ale Adumin; Shira Tzur, 20, from Haifa; and Erez Orbach, 20, of Alon Shvut.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the scene that authorities knew the identity of the attacker, and "as much as we know, he is a supporter of the Islamic State."

Israel's national police chief, Roni Alsheikh, told reporters that the truck was driven by "an east Jerusalem Palestinian" who was killed by other soldiers after the attack. Pictures from the scene showed the truck's windscreen pockmarked with several bullet holes.

A police spokesman described the incident, at the Armon Hanatziv promenade, which overlooks Jerusalem's Old Walled City, as "a terrorist attack," although an investigation remains ongoing.

Security camera video shown on Israeli Channel 2 TV showed the truck barreling at a high speed off the road and into the crowd of people. The truck is seen backing up quickly, apparently trying to crush more people, before the driver is shot dead.

"There was no sense in that reverse," Leah Schreiber, a witness, told reporters. "He drove backward to crush more people. That was really clear."

MDA paramedic Chen Lendi Sharon, who was first on the scene, said: "When we arrived, there was chaos. I saw a truck that rammed youngsters getting off the bus next to the Armon Hanatziv view point. On the grass near the road, [there] lay 10 trapped individuals."

The White House National Security Council said in a statement that the United States "condemns in the strongest terms today's horrific terrorist attack in Jerusalem."

"Such cowardly acts can never be justified, and we call on all to send a clear and unequivocal message that terrorism must never be tolerated," NSC spokesman Ned Price said in the statement.

Since last year, Palestinian attackers have killed 40 Israelis and two visiting Americans in a series of mostly stabbing attacks. During that time, 229 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire. Israel says most of the Palestinians killed were attackers, while the rest died in clashes.</s>(CNN) -- The driver who plowed a truck into a group of soldiers in Jerusalem, killing four people and injuring at least 10, may have been an ISIS sympathizer, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Three of the four killed were females. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said three of the slain were cadets and one was an officer.

All of the slain victims were in their 20s.

Several other officers and cadets were injured and evacuated to hospitals for medical treatment, IDF said.

Speaking from the scene of the attack, on a promenade overlooking the walled Old City of Jerusalem, Netanyahu said authorities have identified the terrorist and "all signs show he is a supporter of the Islamic State."

Earlier, Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told CNN "there are no potential active ISIS cells here in Israel."

"A group had gotten off the bus and were getting organized with their bags when the terrorist took the opportunity, ramming his truck into the group," Rosenfeld said.

"Then he in fact reversed and tried to ram them again until shots were fired, and the terrorist was shot and killed at the scene."

Netanyahu said police had sealed off the killer's neighborhood -- a predominately Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem -- while they investigate.

"We know there is a sequence of terror attacks and it's quite possible that there is a connection between them, from France, Berlin and now Jerusalem," Netanyahu said.

In a statement, Jerusalem's mayor, Nir Barkat, said there was "no limit to the cruelty of the terrorists who use every means to murder Jews and damage the routine life in the capital of Israel."

While no group has yet to claim responsibility for the attack, Hamas, the militant fundamentalist Islamic organization, praised the attacker on Twitter.

"We bless the courageous and heroic truck operation in Jerusalem," the group tweeted. "It comes within the context of the normal response to the crimes of the Israeli occupation."

Hamas' goal is the creation of an Islamic fundamentalist Palestinian state and they insist that Israel is an occupying power and must be destroyed.

Diplomatic tensions have flared between the US and Israel in recent weeks after the Obama administration decided not to veto a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel and its construction of new settlements in East Jerusalem.</s>Four Israelis were killed and more than a dozen people injured Sunday when a truck slammed into a group of soldiers at a Jerusalem bus stop before the assailant was fatally shot, police said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited the scene, said the attacker has been identified and “according to all the signs he was a supporter of the Islamic State.”

He said there “definitely could be a connection” between Sunday's incident and recent truck attacks in France and Germany, the Associated Press reported.

Police chief Roni Alsheich described the crash as a terror attack. He said the truck driver was from an Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

"You don't need more than two to three seconds to find a terrorist target," he told the Haaretz newspaper. "The soldiers at the scene reacted immediately and killed the attacker."

The assailant speeded up and veered his truck into a group that had just exited the bus, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told TheJerusalem Post. Police heightened security throughout the capital and closed off neighborhoods near the scene, he said. Israel's security cabinet met to discuss fallout from the crash.

Paramedic Landy Sharon told reporters the truck had hit a group of young people. Military service of two years or more is mandatory for most Israelis over 18.

“About 10 people were lying on the ground near the street,” Sharno said. “Some of them were trapped under the truck.”

Leah Schreiber, told Haaretz he was an instructor who had been on the bus with the soldiers.

"A few minutes after we arrived, while I was talking about the Jerusalem landscape, I heard screaming behind me," he said. "I turned around a saw the truck getting on the sidewalk. Soldiers who were in the area started shooting at the truck. At first they couldn't kill him."

The Palestinian Hamas movement praised the attack but did not claim responsibility. Hamas spokesman Abdul-Latif Qanou called it a “heroic” act and encouraged other Palestinians to do the same.

Sunday's attack is the latest in a series of attacks by Palestinians on Israelis, mostly vehicle rammings and knife attacks. Since September 2015, Palestinian attackers have killed 40 Israelis and two visiting Americans — and 230 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis combating the attacks and other clashes, according to the AP.

Sunday’s attack marks the first Israeli deaths in three months.</s>At least four people were killed and 15 more injured after a truck plowed into pedestrians in Jerusalem, say Israeli police. According to police spokeswoman Luba Samri, the driver swerved into a group of Israeli soldiers who had just gotten off a bus at the Armon Hanatziv promenade.

The driver "has been neutralized," Israeli police say. They are describing the killing as a terrorist act by a man who hails from Jabel Mukaber, a predominantly Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem. Israeli police have placed a gag order on further details pending an investigation.

"You don't need more than two to three seconds to find a terrorist target. The soldiers at the scene reacted immediately and killed the attacker," Israeli Police Chief Roni Alsheich said, according to the news service Haaretz.

In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly condemned the attack, connecting the suspect to ISIS.

"We know the identity of the attacker, according to all the signs he is a supporter of Islamic State," Netanyahu said, according to Reuters. "We have sealed off Jabel Mukabar, the neighbourhood from where he came, and we are carrying out other actions which I will not detail."

Israeli emergency services say that the four people — three women and one man — killed in the attack were in their 20s. At least 15 people have been hospitalized.

The Guardian offers more details from the scene of the attack:



"The attack took place during a visit by a large group of Israeli soldiers to a scenic outlook overlooking Jerusalem and the Old City. "The scene of the attack is also a few blocks from the American consulate in the city which speculation has suggested could be controversially re-designated as a future US embassy by Donald Trump's administration if he moves the embassy to Jerusalem although there was no immediate indication what motivated the driver. ... "The driver was shot dead by other soldiers and one of the tour guides with the group that was hit as the driver reversed back towards the dead and injured."



As reporter Daniel Estrin tells NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro, this is the first major attack on Israelis since early November. But for more than a year before that, there had been a spate of stabbings and shooting attacks against Israelis by Palestinians.

Sunday's truck attack comes amid renewed scrutiny on Israeli settlements in land the country captured during the 1967 Six-Day War. Late last month, the United Nations Security Council voted 14 to 0 to condemn those settlements, as the U.S. abstained and allowed the resolution to pass.

Last week, in a rare move, an Israeli military court convicted one of its soldiers of manslaughter for killing a Palestinian assailant. The case had become deeply divisive in the country.</s>An obscure Palestinian group has claimed responsibility for a truck ramming in Jerusalem that killed four Israeli soldiers and injured 17 others as families of the dead began holding funerals.

The previously unknown group calling itself The Martyr of Baha Alyan Collective said it had no outside links, acted on "political motives" and it was not the first attack carried out by a member.

It warned it will be followed by "a torrent of unyielding quality attacks".

CCTV footage of the attack showed a truck mounting the kerb and ploughing through the crowd of soldiers.

The driver then reversed over injured people on the ground before being shot dead.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier said "all signs point to the attacker being a supporter of the Islamic State (IS)", but police said they have no evidence yet to release about possible IS links.

Israeli soldiers have raided the home of the 28-year-old Palestinian attacker, arresting his wife, father and brothers on suspicion of aiding him.

The soldiers also put up new roadblocks and checked residents' cars on the streets of East Jerusalem neighbourhood Jabel Mukkaber.

But the attacker's uncle Housam Farah Mahmoud said the family had no idea of his nephew's intentions, and rejected Mr Netanyahu's claim his nephew supported IS.

"He wants to try to convince the international community that the Palestinians are ISIS," Mr Mahmoud said.

"But the Palestinian people have a good cause. They want their state and he is ignoring this right."

Times of Israel political correspondent Raoul Wootliff said it benefitted Mr Netanyahu politically if he could convince the world Palestinian acts of violence were no different to IS.

"This statement making a direct connection between the attacker and Islamic State really takes it to the next level and says that this attack is one of the same series of attacks that we are seeing," Mr Wootliff said.

"It's black and white with ISIS. With many other things we have nuance, we have grey. But ISIS is black and white.

"ISIS is bad. We can all agree around the world that ISIS is bad, so by saying that this is part of ISIS, we are saying this is bad. There's no nuance. There's no side to it at all."

A funeral has been held at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl military cemetery for 22-year-old officer Shir Hajaj, who was among those killed in the attack.

Hundreds of young soldiers gathered in the cold, while her three sisters and mother screamed and cried hysterically as her coffin was lowered into the ground.

Police said the dead victims — three women and one man — were all in their 20s.

Seventeen soldiers were also wounded and taken to hospital.

In the Palestinian Gaza strip, thousands of Palestinian militant group Hamas activists and supporters celebrated the attack on the streets of Jabalya refugee camp.</s>The driver who plowed a truck into a group of soldiers in Jerusalem, killing four people and injuring at least 10, may have been an ISIS sympathizer, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israeli police shot and killed the attack suspect, whom they identified as 28-year-old Fadi Qunbar. Police have also arrested nine other suspects, including five of Qunbar’s family members.

Speaking from the scene of the attack, on a promenade overlooking the walled Old City of Jerusalem, Netanyahu said authorities have identified the terrorist and “all signs show he is a supporter of the Islamic State.”

“We know there is a sequence of terror attacks and it’s quite possible that there is a connection between them, from France, Berlin and now Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said.

Israel will now consider using administrative detention against suspected ISIS sympathizers and supporters, according to an official familiar with the decision. Earlier, Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told CNN “there are no potential active ISIS cells here in Israel.”

Netanyahu said police had sealed off Qunbar’s predominately Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem while they investigate.

While no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, Hamas, the militant fundamentalist Islamic organization, praised the attacker on Twitter.

“We bless the courageous and heroic truck operation in Jerusalem,” the group tweeted. “It comes within the context of the normal response to the crimes of the Israeli occupation.”

Hamas’ goal is the creation of an Islamic fundamentalist Palestinian state and they insist that Israel is an occupying power and must be destroyed.

Three of the four people killed were women. Israel Defense Forces said three of the slain were cadets and one was an officer. All of the slain victims were in their 20s.

“A group had gotten off the bus and were getting organized with their bags when the terrorist took the opportunity, ramming his truck into the group,” Rosenfeld said.

“Then he in fact reversed and tried to ram them again until shots were fired, and the terrorist was shot and killed at the scene.”

The four soldiers killed in the Jerusalem truck attack Sunday have been identified by Israel Defense Forces. They are:

Netanyahu posted photos of the four soldiers on Facebook with this message: “I am mourning the loss of our four soldiers who were murdered today in the terrorist attack in Jerusalem. In the name of all the people of Israel, I offer my condolences to their families.”

Several other officers and cadets were injured and evacuated to hospitals for medical treatment, IDF said.

In a statement, Jerusalem’s mayor, Nir Barkat, said there was “no limit to the cruelty of the terrorists who use every means to murder Jews and damage the routine life in the capital of Israel.”

In a statement, the US State Department condemned the “glorification of terrorism now or at any time” and said “there is absolutely no justification for these brutal and senseless attacks.”

Diplomatic tensions have flared between the United States and Israel in recent weeks after the Obama administration decided not to veto a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel and its construction of new settlements in East Jerusalem.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blames the Islamic State for the attack that killed four soldiers and injured 15 others in East Jerusalem.