Bus Stop Car Ramming Attacks in Israel

"A mighty war against terror is taking place on all fronts. We are now pursuing and encircling the villages where the terrorists came from."

"[Security forces have thwarted hundreds of attacks this year], But unfortunately, not this morning."

"The fighting continues in the Gaza Strip. [Israel] will destroy Hamas as we promised and free our hostages — all of our hostages."

"Sadly, the war also continues in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria, [West Bank] where we have acted with great force."

"[Such terror attacks will not deter Israel.] They only increase our determination to complete our missions, in Judea and Samaria too — everywhere."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at the scene of a terror attack at Ramot Junction, entrance to Jerusalem, September 8, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

 

"I was on the bus. The bus was packed. The moment [the driver] opened the door… terrorists came. It was terrible."

"I was by the back door, I fell on everyone and escaped, I saved myself."

"There was gunfire there beyond anything imaginable. I can’t believe I’m standing here. Indescribable gunfire." 

Malka Cohen, passenger, bus 62 

 

"[This was a] heroic operation."

"We affirm that this operation is a natural response to the occupation’s crimes and war of extermination it is waging against our people."

"[West Bank Palestinians should continue to] escalate the confrontation with the occupation and its settlers."

Hamas statement

Police and rescue personnel at the scene of a terror attack at Ramot Junction near the entrance to Jerusalem, September 8, 2025 (Chaim Goldberg/FLASH90)

 

Yet another of the countless attacks perpetrated by Palestinians against Israelis. Bus stops are a favourite target, as are many other people-gathering areas to ensure that carnage is as widespread as possible. A terrorist armed with a submachine gun as these two attackers were, even a pistol, is capable of murdering many people in such gathering places, and wounding even greater numbers. People who just happened to be waiting for transportation at such hubs, or dining at popular restaurants, or sauntering along the street on a day of relaxation, or attending public meetings, their numbers arresting the attention of those who respond to the incitement of the Palestinian Authority and the celebrity status they gain after such attacks.

 

The infamous "Pay for Slay" is another incentive in the guise of monetary awards, a reward for courage in the face of  an unarmed, oblivious-to-danger 'enemy' in a Palestinian culture inculcated from grade school by videos, plays, photographs, lectures and plays demonstrating the noble obligation of Palestinian youths to aspire to become martyrs and in the process gift the heavens above with the death of despised Jews. On this occasion, two young men from villages in the West Bank acted in concert to spray innocent Israeli civilians with gunfire in a determination to become the heroes of another atrocity.

 

This fatal terror attack in Jerusalem Monday morning took six lives and wounded over a dozen other people. As it happened, an armed soldier in the crowded terminal who just happened to be there, along with two citizens who were also armed -- a not uncommon measure of self-protection in Israel -- neutralized the two who had been driven to the area by a third man, to carry out their planned attack, at a time when the state of Israel and its military are deeply embroiled in self-defence against Palestinian and jihad-happy terrorists throughout the region.

 

The victims of a deadly terror shooting in Jerusalem, on September 8, 2025; Top L-R: Levi Yitzhak Pash, Yisrael Matzner, 28; Rabbi Yosef David, 43; Bottom L-R: Rabbi Mordechai Steintzag, 79; Yaakov Pinto, 25; Sarah Mendelson, 60 (Courtesy)

 

This event was the deadliest such attack since 2024 in East Jerusalem. In a country that is always on guard and which will never be entirely free of such 'spontaneous' expressions of unreasoning hatred from an enemy taught since birth to view all Jews as fair game in a never-ending territorial war that demands all and overlooks nothing. Paramedics responding to an all-too-familiar scene spoke of the wounded lying unconscious on the sidewalk and road close to the bus stop.

 

According to the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency, the two attackers were 20- and 22-year-old Palestinians from the West Bank, neither of whom had a record of prior arrest. Prime Minister Netanyahu at the scene, warned that Israel would respond to such attacks with wide military raids, in reference to operations to target refugee camps in the West Bank.  

"The fact that we eliminated these two terrorists is not enough, the fact that we go after the supporters and aides, that is not enough either."

"We have already eliminated nests of terror in refugee camps, in three."

"We simply evacuated the population from there and flattened all the terror infrastructure -- and my instruction is to do the same in other nests of terror."  

Paramedics respond to a shooting attack at the Ramot Junction near the entrance to Jerusalem, which wounded at least 15 people and killed 6, on September 8, 2025. (Magen David Adom)

 

A previous similar attack in the Ramot Junction area took place in 2023 when an Israeli citizen, Hussein Qaraqa, a resident of Issawiya, a neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, rammed his car into a group of people at a bus stop near Ramot Junction. In that attack, 6-year-old Yaakov Yisrael Paley and 20-year-old Alter Shlomo Lederman died at the scene, while Asher Menahem Paley 8, Yaakov's older brother, critically injured in the attack, died of his wounds in hospital the following day. 

Surviving Paris ISIL Terrorism

"I hope to be able to put the word 'victim' into the past."

"When things like this happen you have no repair possible. That's why you have justice, [even if] justice can't do everything."

"It puts an exclamation point at the end of it."

Arthur Dénouveaux, Bataclan massacre survivor

"The assassins, these terrorists, thought they were firing into the crowd, into a mass of people,"

"[Hearing the testimony of victims was] crucial to both their own healing and that of the nation."

"It wasn't a mass — these were individuals who had a life, who loved, had hopes and expectations."

Dominique Kielemoes, whose son bled to death at one of the cafes

Families of victims, journalists and lawyers attend the courthouse where the trial took place under heightened security on Wednesday. (Abdulmonam Eassa/Getty Images)

 Salah Abdeslam, chief suspect and the sole survivor among the 2015 terrorist attackers who massacred 130 people -- claiming their massacre was due to the influence of the Islamic State group -- has now been convicted of murder. His sentence was the most severe possible under French law; life in prison without possibility of parole. He denied being a murderer and pleaded forgiveness for his error in judgement.

A special terrorist court had been convened to try the case of the terrorist attack against the Bataclan theatre and a number of other attacks at cafes and a sport stadium in a coordinated night of terror and death in Paris. Abdeslam was found guilty of murder and attempted murder related to a terrorist enterprise. While he had contended a change of mind led him to abandon his explosives vest, in fact the court heard, it was a malfunction in the explosives vest that kept him from detonating it and slaughtering even greater numbers.

 

A courtroom sketch shows Abdeslam as the verdict was read at the courthouse on the Île de la Cité in Paris on Wednesday. (Elisabeth de Pourquery/France Televisions/Reuters)

 

A special French court Wednesday also found twenty men to be guilty of involvement in the Bataclan attack as well as on Paris cafes and France's national stadium. Presiding Judge Jean-Louis Peries read the verdicts surrounded by tight security, to close out the nine-month trial. Eighteen defendants aside from Abdeslam were given terrorist-related convictions.

Harrowing victim accounts were heard in the packed main chamber of the 13th Century Justice Palace aside from the testimony of Abdeslam, the sole survivor of the ten-member attack team that gave Paris a Friday night that would forever haunt the city. There were a dozen overflow rooms and they were fully packed. Of the other defendants six were accused of a direct role in the Mach 2015 attacks in Brussels, claimed as well by the Islamic State group.

 

A court sketch shows Salah Abdeslam standing (far R) alongside the other 13 defendants in court this week   Benoit PEYRUCQ/AFP

 

The remainder of the defendants faced accusations of assisting with logistics or transportation. The most conspicuous change related to that fateful day in March 2015 is armed officers patrolling public spaces constantly. Most of the attackers were born and raised in France and Belgium, which led to soul-searching by authorities while at the same time the lives of those who suffered losses or bore witness were forever transformed. Of the ten-member attacking team, six are presumed to have been killed in Syria or Iraq.

A French police officer stands guard in front of the Bataclan concert venue during a ceremony marking the fifth anniversary of the deadly terror attacks in Paris, on Nov. 13, 2020. Chief suspect Salah Abdeslam was convicted Wednesday of murder and other charges and sentenced to life in prison without parole. (Benoit Tessier/Reuters)

Islam Quite Smply Incompatible with Gay Rights

"Around 2015 we were worried about this person. We have followed him, to a degree."

"In more recent times, he was not one of the people we were the most worried about."

Roger Berg, acting head of PST (Norwegian Domestic Security agency)

 

"We are sorry that once again we have to say that a Pride event must be cancelled."

"It is wrong, as the police claim, that this was meant to be a small event. We understand that people are now frustrated and still want to gather."

Oslo Pride

 

"I know how many of you felt when it turned out that the perpetrator belonged to the Islamic community. Many of you [Norway's Muslim community] experienced fear and unrest " 

"You should know this: We stand together, we are one community and we are responsible for the community together."

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere

People bring flowers and rainbow flags to pay tribute to the victims as they take part in a spontaneous Pride parade, following a shooting at the London Pub, a popular gay bar and nightclub, after the official event was cancelled, in Oslo, Norway, June 25, 2022. Haakon Mosvold Larsen/NTB/via REUTERS

Another shock in Norway. The country's right-wing (Anders Brevik) has already made it abundantly clear how much they fear and detest the entry to the Nordic country of people from the Middle East, people practising a different religion linked to a different history, culture and set of laws, not secular like that of most Western democracy, but theocratic, linked to and a mainstay of Islam which regulates every aspect of the Muslim faithful's lives.

Norway insists that it is open to immigration and migration from the Middle East, prepared to welcome and absorb people radically differently socialized than indigenous Norwegians. And the country's political elite make it a point of pride that their welcome is unconditional. Native Norwegians are not so sure. There has been a lashback of anti-Muslim sentiment, with a hefty third of Norwegians uncomfortable to say the least with the presence of Muslims among them.

The 42-year-old suspect in the attack that took place during an LGBTQ festival in Oslo, was no recent immigrant. He was brought by his family to Norway while still an infant, so he has lived in Norway all his life. He is considered to be a radicalized Islamist, and was recognized as such from 2015 onward by Norwegian police authorities, but not considered to be a high-value threat. As with most of these terrorist actions, he has been described as mentally ill.

 

2 dead, 21 wounded in Norway LGBT nightclub shooting  (photo credit: REUTERS)

 

Married, children, he has lived on the dole for years. Iranian by birth, he was arrested after a shooting in the nightlife district of the country's capital early on Saturday, held on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and terrorism. It was actually people on the scene who followed him after the shooting and took him into initial custody until the arrival of police. Two people were killed and another 21 were injured in what has been named an "Islamist terror act".

Clearly, he was 'radicalized' while a long-time citizen of the country. Clerics established in mosques throughout the non-Islamic world are known to be involved in introducing impressionable young Muslims to the concept of jihad and violent missions in the glories of martyrdom. Police in Oslo have thus far had no luck in their attempts to question the man identified as Zaniar Matapour.

He has made his own demands, however, that he would make a statement to be recorded and videotaped only if it were to be released to the public "with no time delay so it won't be censored or manipulated", his defence lawyer explained. Clearly, a type of 'manifesto' that he believes will deliver a welcome message that Gay Pride and LGBTQ festivities are sinful and not permitted by Islam. Punishment is their due and he assigned himself to deliver that punishment; death to the unbeliever.

The killer opened fire at three locations; outside and inside the London Pub, a popular gay bar in Oslo. Despite which police investigators feel confident in stating it was yet too soon in their investigation to determine whether the man had specifically targeted the gay community. Police found two weapons at the scene, one a fully automatic gun. Despite which, police recommend that all further LGBTQ events be cancelled for the present, not ruling out further and ongoing threats.

 

 

Collateral Damage

"I would say this is probably so far the most direct and most immediate type threat to people's safety."

"When workers are sitting in vehicles and they are being attacked by these assailants swinging large axes, smashing the windows, hitting the vehicle when [workers'] bodies and heads are just feet away, having torches thrown at their vehicles and [in] the boxes  of their vehicles that could compromise their lives -- this has gone way too far."

RCMP Chief Superintendent Warren Brown

Damage caused to the Coastal GasLink construction site near Houston, B.C., on Feb. 17.-/AFP/Getty Images

"[We respect people's right to conduct peaceful protests], but intimidation of workers, impacts to the environment, and destruction of property and equipment goes far beyond protest and disagreement and is something we as British Columbians and Canadians can never condone."

LNG Canada

"Will the Trudeau government now seize the bank accounts of the foreign funded eco-terrorists responsible for this violence [referencing the Emergencies At permitting authorities to target donations made to illegal convoy activities]."

British Columbia Premier Jason Kenney

"If the Trudeau government is set on using the Emergencies Act to end blockades, then they should also use it to follow the money, seize the associated vehicles and provide all the resources necessary to ensure those illegally acting here [on the Coastal GasLink pipeline in northern British Columbia] are arrested for damaging and blocking this critical export infrastructure."

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe

The damage to the construction site was allegedly caused by 20 masked and camouflaged attackers.-/AFP/Getty Images

During his career overseeing the north district of the province of British Columbia RCMP Chief Superintendent Brown has long been accustomed to encountering the work of protesters, particularly those invested in protecting the environment as they see it, from exploitation by energy producers, but this latest episode of damaged industrial equipment, booby traps, incendiary devices and blockaded roadways represent an upscaled violence he had never before seen.

The violence took place on Thursday evening at a remote drilling site close to the Morice River. Security footage is being reviewed by investigators who are interviewing some nine Coastal GasLink employees present on the site when twenty or so masked marauders entered after midnight, brandishing axes, attacking security guards and threatening workers wih flare guns in a coordinated attack.

 

A surveillance camera captures an attacker lighting off a flare during the attack on the Coastal GasLink camp near Houston, B.C, on Feb. 17. This image, taken as the attack started, was provided by the company. The attackers disabled the cameras a short time later. Photo by Coastal GasLink /PNG

 

Heavy equipment and trailers suffered millions of dollars in damage. The attackers commandeered equipment at the site and used it to damage other machinery and to demolish site buildings. Equipment's hydraulic and fuel lines were cut by the attackers, as well, causing significant leaks. The Coastal GasLink pipeline, coming in at $6.7 billion, is owned by TC Energy Corp based in Calgary for the purpose of connecting British Columbia's shale gas resources to LNG Canada's export project in Kitimat, B.C.

The project, close to 60 percent complete for the 670-kilometre pipeline, has been stricken with demonstrations and blockades from environmentalists along with some First Nations groups, since the beginning of construction in 2019. The project has government approval, along with the support of all twenty elected First Nation councils spanning the pipeline's route through northern B.C. First Nations will see employment as a result, and will share in the pipeline's profits to an agreed-upon percentage.

It is some hereditary chiefs, not the democratically elected councils of the Wet'suwet'en people who are opposed to the project, a distinct minority. No arrests have yet been made relating to Thursday's attack; the challenge has not yet been met in identifying the assailants, disguised and masked when they arrived on foot at the site. 

The public and community must understand that the police response to the incident will not equate to a crackdown of law enforcement on lawful protest, said Chief Superintendent Brown. This was a violent, criminal act that will be treated with all the severity that the law commands. Canada's Western provincial premiers have called on the federal government for a more aggressive stance in responding to the attack, amidst heightened tensions across Canada in view of the blockade of truckers around Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

There are distinct differences in how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addresses these two very different situations. The Truckers' Convoy is viewed by the prime minister as a direct assault on his orders, which it is, as well as a defiance of a mandate that was totally unnecessary and which led to people losing their livelihoods, as well as threatening the deliveries of critical food and medical supplies across the country. Added to which the Convoy protesters made it abundantly clear that they abhor this prime minister and he, ostensibly governing all the people of Canada, returned their contempt in spades.

He has called for the first time in history on the Emergencies Act to solve a problem that policing agencies and local municipalities should have well in hand, but which will commandeer banks to freeze the bank accounts of all those identified as taking part in the protests, deemed unlawful under the special provisions he has brought to bear. A protest that has certainly got out of hand, and has done so because of the prime minister's inept and contemptible treatment of people's legitimate concerns.

 

Police rushing to assist Coastal GasLink workers who had been attacked by a group of about 20 people said their way was blocked by booby traps, including several fires. PNG

 

The violent incident in northern British Columbia, on the other hand, has elicited no comment from him, and nor has it featured large in most mainstream media, by contrast to the coverage given to the Truckers' Convoy and the clean-up aftermath of police making hundreds of arrests and towing away big rigs. Matters of environmentalists indulging in wildly vicious criminal behaviour is of relatively little interest to this government.

"Their arrival seemed to be very well coordinated. The violence, the rhetoric, the threats -- their purpose seemed to be very coordinated."

"This was definitely coordinated and it was targeted and it was done at that time for a specific reason."

"This is not about enforcing a court injunction. This is not about measuring the volatility of protesters."

"This is about a specific criminal act that happened on February 17."

"This is about 20 or so people who have taken it far too far and we're going to find out who they are."

RCMP Chief Superintendent Warren Brown

Millions of dollars in damaged equipment and property was left behind by vandals who attacked a Coastal GasLink site near Houston on Thursday. PNG

Terrorist Attack in Norway, But Don't Jump To Conclusions...

"My youngest daughter was a couple of meters in front of me when she suddenly stopped as there were lots of blue lights."

"We saw a police car with sirens on come, and it stopped at the top of the street. Two policemen jumped out of the car with weapons and ran into the shop here, and they were shouting, 'armed police, put down the weapon.'"

"Then we were told to move away, that we had to get to safety. So we ran to the corner there, and stood there on the corner. There, we met another man who said that it was he who had called the police, and that the perpetrator had shot after him, down here, and then we saw that there was an arrow down there in the road. There was no crossbow only a long arrow lying there."

Linda Ostergaard, attack witness, Kongsberg, Norway

 

"The man has been apprehended ... from the information we now have, this person carried out these actions alone."

"Several people have been injured and several are dead." 

Oeyvind Aas, police chief, Kongsberg

 

"This is a gruesome incident, there is nothing else to say."

"Now we must try to take care of the inhabitants as best we can."

"[This town is] a completely ordinary community with completely ordinary people. [Everyone has been deeply shaken by] this very tragic situation."

Kari Anne Sand, mayor, Kongsberg

Police officers cordon off the scene in Kongsberg on October 13.

"We have during last night, this morning and this afternoon learned more about what atrocities have taken place, what cruel acts innocent people were exposed to, what unrest and fear hit the community in Kongsberg, and spread to the whole country."

"This shows that our society is vulnerable. It is not good for us to conclude what is the motive, what is behind this action. The police must be allowed to finish their work and clarify, but it emphasizes again that preparedness is a complex task for a society."

Labour leader, Norway Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store

Despite having said which, police readily and early declared the longbow attack that killed four women and a man, injuring several others, was a terrorist attack. Committed, as it happens, by someone whom the police had previously interacted with, a Dane living in Norway who had converted to Islam and who was known to have been radicalized. Espen Andersen Bråthen, 37, is slated to appear in court Friday, charges levelled against him not yet revealed.

Obviously, no one is leaping to conclusions; the evidence seems fairly straightforward, yet the government itself walks on tippy-toes over declaring the obvious, not wanting its citizenry to draw from the shocking news any hint of caution required against the country's immigrant Muslim population. A situation which could easily get out of hand, after all, leading to suspicion from indigenous Norwegians about how trustworthy their relatively new demographic of immigrant Muslims can be in their loyalty to their welcoming country.

How many 'radicalized' Muslims could there be? How much of a threat do they pose to the general population? Norway has already dealt with a much more shocking terrorist event when one of its own conceived and acted on a plan to illustrate just how dangerous hatred of the other can be, when he murdered 8 innocent people in Oslo detonating a bomb, then stormed an island to slaughter 69 more in a gun rampage. All together Anders Behring Brevik, a right-wing idealogue, angry over immigration killed 77 people.

 

A bow and arrow cannot claim as many lives as a bomb and guns, but the damage to society through the 'gruesomeness' of the event is monumental. Although police consider the deadly attack to be an instance of terrorism, they are as yet without an explanation as to what motivated the convert to Islam, although commitment to jihad seems a reasonable enough conclusion; it is what 'radicalization' results in, responding to the call to jihad.

The first call to police by bystanders reporting a man with a bow and arrow came in at 6:15 pm, the rampage was over, the man arrested 35 minutes later. The municipality of Kongsberg, 68 km from Oslo, has a population of some 28,000 people. There were, said police,  "several crime scenes" that took place over "a large area" of the town. Resulting in large areas of the west side of the town cordoned off. 

 

The attacker first opened fire in a supermarket. At the supermarket an off-duty police officer was shot and wounded. With one of the lowest crime rates in the world, unarmed Norwegian police respond to few crimes. Last year there were only 28 occasions when police used or threatened to use firearms to apprehend a criminal situation. Not that there aren't occasions of violence erupting. When restaurants, bars and nightclubs were reopened following the loosening of pandemic restrictions dozens of mass brawls broke out.

Celebratory occasions marking the end of pandemic lockdowns in cities across Norway. Certainly not comparable to the sinister threat of stalking killers setting out on a mission of lethal violence in a country known for its tolerance and calm reaction to adverse events. A country notorious for criticism of Israel, a country which is constantly on guard for just such attacks. Norway practices a facade of public and social mores invested in quiet everyday civil diplomacy among people. Not much different than Israel but without the constant threats.

Residents have placed tributes for those killed in Kongsberg town centre   EPA

The Offended Dignity of Mass Murderers

The attacks in Paris on the night of Friday 13 November by gunmen and suicide bombers hit a concert hall, a major stadium, restaurants and bars, almost simultaneously - and left 130 people dead and hundreds wounded.  EPA/EPA/Reuters

"We are starting a trial today that has been described as historic, out of the ordinary. [It is] certainly historic because the facts, due to their dramatic intensity, are part of the national and international historic events of this century."

"The purpose of our court of assize is to examine the charges against each person and to draw all the penal consequences after having listened to each person."

"We must all keep this purpose in mind in order to stay on course."

Presiding judge Jean-Louis Périès 

 

"I gave up my job to become a fighter for the Islamic State."

"I've been treated like a dog for six years and I've never complained.You should treat us like human beings."

"I want to testify that there is no god except Allah and that Mohammad is his servant."

"My silence does not make me a criminal, it is my defence."

Salah Abdeslam, 31, charged with murder

 

"It's a provocation, we expected it and in actual fact we're expecting absolutely nothing."

"The assassins, these terrorists, thought they were firing into the crowd, into a mass of people. But it wasn't a mass — these were individuals who had a life, who loved, had hopes and expectations, and that we need to talk about at the trial. It's important."

"Our ability to be carefree is gone. The desire to go out, travel — all of that's gone. Even if we still do a number of things, our appetite for life has disappeared."

Dominique Kielemoes, whose son bled to death at one of the cafes 

 

"He has the intelligence of an empty ashtray ... he's extraordinarily vacuous."

"I asked him if he had read the Koran, and  he replied that he had researched it on the Internet."

Sven Mary, former Abdeslam lawyer

Salah Abdeslam, right, and Mohamed Abrini, centre, are shown on a CCTV camera at a petrol station in Ressons, France, on Nov. 11, 2015, just days before the deadly attacks. Both are among 20 people facing trial in France. (AFP/Getty Images)

The spectacle of a well-rehearsed strategy for members of an Islamic State cell in France to attack a number of popular sites in Paris simultaneously in a combined terrorist attack aiming to kill as many people as possible in the name of jihad drew the fascinated eyes of the world on France and Belgium, two western European countries with sizeable and long-time Muslim populations. The "Islamic State soldier" now on trial for murder, along with other enablers of the November 13, 2015 attack that led to the death of 130 people, remains steadfast and proud of his status as an Islamic State terrorist, but offended at the lack of proper respect given him throughout his prison stay.

While the civilized world gasped in disbelieving horror at the wholesale slaughter of people at the Bataclan concert hall, six restaurants and bars and a sports stadium, injuring hundreds aside from those killed outright from gun and bomb attacks, those charged for enablement and connection with the massacre feel they can only be judged by Allah, worldly courts of justice have no resonance in their world of jihad which impels them to strike at the unbelievers as an obligation and a message that Islam will prevail in conquering the world.

 

The Bataclan concert hall was evacuated following the attack   AFP

As the only surviving member of the group carrying out the attacks, Abdeslam is recognized as the singular individual whose responsibility for the violent carnage in lives lost and injured must be seen to receive the punishment merited by the act. The French-Moroccan man dressed in black, with a black face mask has never said much in his previous appearances. At the beginning of what is expected to be a protracted trial, perhaps the longest in French history, he deigned to speak, to shout over the judge in fact, complaining of the undignified treatment meted out to himself and his fellows standing trial.

He has no need to justify his actions; after all, the work of god is god's alone to judge and to applaud. He is deserving not of punishment but of recognition as a celebrity-soldier of Islamist jihad. The sole individual accused of murder, the other defendants accused of providing guns, cars or aiding the plan resulting in the attacks, responded to routine questions on name and profession, then remained silent. It was Abdeslam's time to shine, declaring the Shahada as though so doing required no details, no explanations. a exclamation of honour and pride.

"[Abdeslam's statement of himself as a soldier of Islamic State was] very violent."

"Some of my clients are not doing too well ... after hearing a statement that they took as a new, direct threat."

"It's going to be like that for nine months [projected length of the trial]."

Victor Edou, lawyer for eight Bataclan survivors

The attack was a victory by Islamic State as payback over France's involvement in the conflict that took place between the West and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ensconced in their caliphate, territories they took in Iraq and Syria. Those involved in the atrocities that took place in Paris had been urged by Islamic State to attack, and they did. There is an expected 1,800 plaintiffs and over 300 lawyers involved in the trial, described by Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti as an unprecedented judicial marathon.

Of the 20 defendants, eleven have been incarcerated awaiting trial, while six are to be tried in absentia, most of whom are believed to be dead. Found guilty, most face punishments of life imprisonment on conviction. Tight security was mounted around the Palais de Justice courthouse in central Paris. Specially-built reinforced glass partitions were installed in the courtroom. All who attend the court must pass through several checkpoints. It will be late May before a verdict is announced.

Police blocking off the road near Le Petit Cambodge   Getty Images