She said her son, who worked in the family furniture store, had no ties to Hamas, but in the past week had been reading a book about Hamas chief bombmaker Yehiya "The Engineer" Ayyash, who was assassinated by Israeli soldiers in 1996.

She said that after her son called in the morning, her husband and one of her other sons drove to the junction in hopes of stopping him. They arrived too late and instead were asked to identify the body at the National Forensics Institute at Abu Kabir.

Around 7:45 a.m., Ismail was driving a small red car with Israeli license plates, made a left turn at the junction and drove into two women soldiers who were crossing the road, said Shawka Nabari, who was working at a concession stand at the intersection.

The soldiers had just gotten off of a bus and were crossing to the stand, where soldiers can catch rides to several nearby bases.

Other soldiers at the intersection began to help them, phoning for police and ambulances. Ismail then made a U-turn, headed back to the junction and drove into more soldiers.

A police officer shot Ismail through the windshield and his car slammed into a parked cement truck. Police sealed the area and searched the car for explosives, but found none.

Prime Minister Ehud Barak opened Tuesday's cabinet meeting with information on the attack.

"His action will strengthen our determination to do whatever it takes to put an end to terror and to do it in cooperation with the Palestinian Authority," Barak told reporters after meeting former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich.