Jerusalem  - The Palestinian who drove his car into a group of Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem late Monday, injuring 19 people, did not carry out a premeditated attack, his family said Tuesday.

The Palestinian was identified Tuesday as Qassem Mughrabi, 19, from the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Jabel Mukhaber.

Witnesses and Israeli police said he deliberately drove a black BMW into the soldiers as they were waiting to cross the road near the Old City, on the old border between East and West Jerusalem.

An officer who was with the soldiers and a civilian shot dead the perpetrator.

A relative at Mughrabi's home said the incident was an accident, adding the perpetrator took his brother's car without owning a drivers license.

The relative denied reports that Mughrabi had been upset because his cousin had declined his marriage proposal. He said Mughrabi became engaged to be married two weeks ago. The wedding was postponed because an uncle in Jordan had died, he said.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, however, said there was "no way" the incident could have been an accident. It was "unequivocally" clear it was a deliberate attack, he said.

He said the vehicle could not have rolled into pedestrians by accident, because it went uphill. The driver drove the car into the crowd "intentionally," Rosenfeld stressed.

Police arrested a number of Mughrabi's relatives in his East Jerusalem neighbourhood and prohibited the family from erecting a mourning tent.

The run-over was the third such incident in three months. In July, a Palestinian resident from East Jerusalem killed three Israelis when he went on a rampage in a bulldozer in West Jerusalem. Three weeks later, at least 16 Israelis were injured in a copy-cat bulldozer attack in West Jerusalem, carried out by another East Jerusalem resident. (dpa)