http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/2236930/Jerusalem-bulldozer-terrorist's-'heart-broken-by-Jewish-girl'.html Relatives of Hussam Dwaith, the bulldozer driver who killed three and injured dozens in a terror attack on Jerusalem's streets, have said that he had never recovered from a doomed romance with a young Jewish woman and a spell in prison.
A Palestinian has gone on the rampage in a bulldozer on a busy Jerusalem street smashing into a crowded bus. ;
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1488655367/bctid1643975226 http://www.brightcove.com/channel.jsp?channel=1139053637 The 30-year-old man from the Palestinian village of Sur Baher, now part of East Jerusalem, had worked in construction with Israeli companies for 15 years.
He drove the digger into the side of a crowded bus in the city, before an off-duty police officer and soldier shot him dead.
Israeli officials have described the event as an act of terrorism but police believe Dwaith was acting alone and not affiliated with any particular militant group, a finding reinforced by his family who said he was not political.
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Though he had since married and had two young children, his family told a tale of a young man who may have soured after having his heart broken by a young Russian Jewish woman.
"She came here, she lived here in his parents' house with him, she stayed for a month," his cousin Osama Dwaith, 35, told The Daily Telegraph as mourners gathered outside the family home.
But then, he said, a radical Jewish group seized her one night and returned her to her family.
Shortly afterwards, Hussam Dwaith was jailed for a year on drugs charges.
"The problems started after he was in jail. After he came out of jail, he was always alone. He is a good man but after prison, he was confused and nervous," his cousin said.
His family, who all live in the same neighbourhood and work in Israel as taxi drivers, hotel staff and in construction, expressed shock at his actions, saying in the last five years he had remarried, had two children and held steady jobs.
"Today I talked with his friends and co-workers. They said he was very normal. They had breakfast, and then what happened, happened," said Osama Dwaith.
Though his mother was earlier seen ululating from the balcony of the family home, crying out "G-d have mercy on him, he is a shaheed [martyr]," her family said later she had collapsed and could not receive visitors.
Israeli police, who have visited the home to interrogate his family, have said they believe Dwaith was acting alone, and the family maintained he had no links to any political groups despite their claims today. Nor were there tell-tale flags erected outside his home last night that might suggest an affiliation.
A neighbour, Rateb Shehadeh, 60 said "he has no link with Hamas or any group."
"I am against his doings, I denounce it, I do not know why he did it. He died and his secret died with him."