405 en route from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Ghanim seized the steering wheel of the bus, running it off a steep cliff into a ravine in the area of Qiryat Ye'arim.

[3][4][5][1] It had also been described as a "commandeered crash" and an act with "definitional ambiguities", because the attack appeared to have been motivated by personal revenge.

The driver was unable to stabilize the bus; as a result the vehicle rolled down the depth of the ravine and caught fire.

Students from the Telz-Stone yeshiva who heard the screaming rushed to the scene to administer first aid.

After the attack, it was revealed that the assailant was a 25-year-old Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant named Abd al-Hadi Rafa Ghanim who originated from the Nusseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.