A witness who claims he stopped the driver who hit several cars on Tel Aviv’s Bar Lev Street Sunday in what police called a suspected terror attack, said he initially thought the driver had just lost control of his brakes.
Arik Levy told Israel radio that when he went to go help the driver, he saw him continue to hit cars and street lights, and heard him saying "Allahu Akbar" and "death to Jews."
Levy said he ran up to the driver, the two struggled for a short time, and then police arrived at the scene after 10 minutes.
Another witness who saw the incident said the driver "looked crazy."
The eye witness, 18 year old Natalie, said she saw the truck driver driving in zigzags, and "deliberately hitting everything he saw."
"It was obvious it was deliberate," she said. "He was looking at the road and then back down at his wheel. He looked crazy."
Bar Lev street was strewn with wreckage, with several badly damaged vehicles parked in different areas on the street. Some of the vehicles were lying in the middle of the dividing fence in the opposing traffic lane, street signs were flattened and there was glass on street.
The perpetrator’s truck, a large Volvo, came to a stop after smashing into an Egged bus. The bus and truck were side by side on the sidewalk and both were completely damaged. The truck was parked over a destroyed moped which was crushed. Witnesses said the moped rider jumped off the vehicle before the truck hit it, so he was saved.
The last target hit by the truck driver was right near the Eliyahu Golomb School on Bar Lev Street.
One woman, who asked not to be named, said "I am traumatized by what I saw. I was sitting in my car when I saw the truck hit the car in front of me and then drive on." She said she saw the driver in the car in front of her slump down, and then he was later declared dead by paramedics.
She added that she was reading a prayer book at the time of the incident and that’s what saved her.
After the incident, dozens of angry residents gathered around Bar Lev Street, and a few residents shouted "death to Arabs," with one man saying the incident happened because of "their F*****" Nakba Day."
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