Baby survives rampage that killed her mom

She's reunited with father after passers-by pulled her from crushed car

	This construction front loader was used Wednesday by a Palestinian man in Jerusalem to ram into and crush vehicles, killing three people — including a woman whose 5-month-old daughter survived.
Menahem Kahana / AFP-Getty Images

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MSNBC staff and news service reports

updated 4:08 p.m. ET July 3, 2008

JERUSALEM - A 5-month-old girl whose mother died in the rampage by a Palestinian driving a huge front loader has been reunited with her father.

Batsheva Unterman, 33, was killed Wednesday by the east Jerusalem man who slammed a construction vehicle into buses, cars and pedestrians. Three people were killed and 45 were injured before the attacker was shot dead by an offduty police officer.

Unterman's child escaped unhurt but it took hours to locate the child's father, who did not know his wife and baby were involved in the attack, rescue services said Thursday.

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The Jerusalem daily Haaretz newspaper said that passers-by pulled the infant from the car moments before it was crushed a second time.

"The bulldozer crushed the front of the car," witness Jeremy Aharonson was quoted in Haaretz as saying. "The driver was shot at and then he drove backwards a little. We ran to the vehicle, me and two other people. We saw the driver lying there behind the wheel, with a baby seat next to her. We saw the baby inside, who looked healthy, she wasn't even crying."

"We tried to open the door but it was bent," he added. "They were shouting at us to stay back, that the car might explode, but two of us managed to pry the door open and take the baby out."

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A moment later, the attacker again rammed into the car with Unterman still inside, this time crushing it completely. It was the last vehicle he rammed before he was shot dead moments later.

The baby's great grandfather was Israel's chief rabbi from 1967 to 1973.

The mother of a second baby reportedly hurled the child out of the car window, and both survived the attack.