Hussam Taysir Duwait was a 32‑year‑old father of two who lived in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sur Baher, an area within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem. As an Arab resident holding an Israeli identity card, he had freedom of movement throughout the country. Prior to the attack, Duwait was employed by a local construction firm working on the Jerusalem Light Rail project. Little verifiable information is publicly available about his early life, education, family background, social history, or personal beliefs outside of the details revealed after the attack.

Colleagues, friends, and family described Duwait as someone not previously associated with militant activity or organized groups. His lawyer stated that he did not belong to any militant organization and speculated that his actions may have stemmed from a psychological break rather than a long‑planned political agenda. Close acquaintances noted that Duwait had not expressed explicit intentions to carry out an attack prior to the incident.

Despite these personal accounts, there were conflicting descriptions of his behavior. Some people in his community alleged that he had a history of drug use, though such reports were not part of any formal legal record. In the hours after the attack, no claim of responsibility came directly from Duwait himself, and no clear motive was confirmed by official investigations.

On 2 July 2008, Hussam Taysir Duwait carried out a violent vehicle-ramming attack in Jerusalem on Jaffa Road, near the city’s old Central Bus Station. Shortly after noon, Duwait allegedly took a Caterpillar 966 front-end loader from a nearby construction site. Media reports initially misidentified the vehicle as a bulldozer, but official statements later clarified the correct type. He then drove the construction vehicle into oncoming traffic and struck an Egged public bus, flipping it onto its side. The vehicle continued to collide with cars and pedestrians as it moved along the busy street. Eyewitnesses reported that Duwait was heard shouting “Allahu Akbar” during the assault.

The attack resulted in the deaths of three civilians: Batsheva Unterman, a 33-year-old kindergarten teacher from Jerusalem, whose six-month-old daughter was pulled from her vehicle moments before the fatal impact; Elizabeth Goren-Friedman, aged 54, originally from Austria and a teacher at a school for the blind; and Jean Relevy, a 68-year-old air-conditioner technician who lived in the Gilo neighborhood. At least 30 others were wounded in the incident.

When the vehicle briefly came to a halt, three individuals climbed onto the cabin in an attempt to subdue Duwait: Moshe Plesser, a 20-year-old off-duty Israeli soldier; an unnamed police officer; and Oron Ben Shimon, an armed civilian and regional security firm manager. Ben Shimon struggled with Duwait inside the cabin, trying to remove his feet from the accelerator and take control of the wheel. During the struggle, he instructed Plesser to shoot. Plesser retrieved Ben Shimon’s handgun and fired three close-range shots into Duwait’s head. The vehicle stopped momentarily, at which point a police motorcycle officer arrived and fired two additional rounds to ensure Duwait was neutralized.

Israeli authorities classified the act as a terrorist attack. Although three Palestinian groups later claimed responsibility, including the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the Galilee Freedom Battalion, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Israeli police concluded that Duwait appeared to have acted alone. A Hamas spokesman described the incident as a "natural response" to Israeli policies, although the group denied direct involvement. Following the attack, Israel's defense minister ordered the demolition of Duwait's home in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sur Baher. Despite legal appeals by the family, the house was demolished on 7 April 2009. The incident was one of several vehicle-ramming attacks in Jerusalem in 2008 and contributed to broader concerns about the emergence of a new form of terrorism.