One dead, dozens hurt in Israel truck ramming

RAMAT HASHARON: A driver rammed his truck into a crowd of people at a bus stop in central Israel on Sunday, killing a man and injuring more than two dozen people, medics and police said.

Police did not immediately say whether the incident, near the Mossad spy agency’s headquarters and other Israeli intelligence sites, was an attack or an accident.

In a separate incident, Israeli soldiers killed a man the military said tried to stab them during a “counterterrorism” operation near Jerusalem, describing it as a “terror attack” against troops.

The truck ramming in Ramat Hasharon, north of Israel’s commercial hub of Tel Aviv, left at least 29 people injured, including several in serious condition, emergency service providers Magen David Adom said in a statement.

One of those hurt died later of his injuries, said the hospital where he was taken for treatment.

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Preliminary police findings showed the truck driver also hit a bus that had stopped at the same station to drop off passengers, the police said in a statement.

The police added that civilians at the scene “shot the truck driver and neutralised him”.

Paramedic Elior Yosef, who arrived at the bus stop after the ramming, said he saw eight people “trapped under the truck”.

“A number of further casualties were either lying or walking near the truck,” he was quoted as saying in the Magen David Adom statement.

Officers and ambulances rushed to the scene, where AFP journalists saw police cordoning off the area as medics helped the injured and a helicopter hovered above.

Palestinian group Hamas, in a statement, said the “heroic ramming attack” that was carried out near “Mossad headquarters… was in response to the crimes committed by the Zionist occupation” against Palestinians.

Elsewhere, the military said a man who tried to stab a group of soldiers was killed in Hizma, a Palestinian town near Jerusalem.

“A terrorist accelerated with his vehicle toward IDF (army) soldiers who were conducting counterterrorism activity adjacent to the area of Hizma,” the military said in a statement, without identifying the attacker.

“The terrorist pulled out a knife from his vehicle, and attempted to carry out a stabbing attack. The soldiers eliminated the terrorist and thwarted the attempted terror attack,” it said, adding no soldiers were hurt.

Since the war in Gaza broke out on October 7 last year, there have been several attacks in Israel carried out by Palestinian fighters.

At least 30 people, including Israeli soldiers, have been killed in such attacks in Israel, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Sunday’s incidents come as Israel held ceremonies to mark the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack that sparked the ongoing wars in Gaza and Lebanon.