A truck driver crashed his vehicle into a crowd gathered at a bus stop in central Israel, resulting in injuries to at least 29 individuals, according to medics and police reports.
In a separate case, Israeli soldiers fatally shot a man who attempted to stab them during a “counterterrorism” operation near Jerusalem, with the military categorizing the event as a “terror attack”.
The truck ramming took place on Ahron Yariv Boulevard in Ramat Hasharon, close to the commercial center of Tel Aviv.
Initial police investigations revealed that the truck driver also collided with a bus that was stationed at the same stop to drop off passengers, as stated by the police.
Authorities did not confirm whether the incident was intentional, but mentioned that bystanders at the scene “shot the truck driver and neutralized him”.
Paramedic Elior Yosef, who arrived at the bus stop following the ramming, reported seeing eight individuals “trapped under the truck”.
“Several more casualties were either lying or walking near the truck,” he was quoted as saying in a statement from Magen David Adom.
Police and ambulances responded to the scene, where AFP reporters observed police cordoning off the area as medics attended to the injured and a helicopter hovered overhead.
Palestinian militant group Hamas issued a statement claiming that the “heroic ramming attack” carried out near “Mossad headquarters… was in retaliation to the crimes perpetrated by the Zionist occupation” against Palestinians.
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In another incident, a man who attempted to stab a group of soldiers was killed in the Hizma region near Jerusalem.
“A terrorist accelerated his vehicle toward IDF soldiers who were engaged in counterterrorism operations near Hizma,” the military stated, without divulging the identity of the assailant.
“The terrorist brandished a knife from his vehicle and attempted to carry out a stabbing attack. The soldiers eliminated the threat and thwarted the attempted act of terrorism,” it added, noting that no soldiers were injured in the event.
Since the onset of the war in Gaza on October 7 of last year, there have been numerous attacks executed in Israel by Palestinian militants.
According to an AFP tally based on official Israeli statistics, at least 30 individuals, including Israeli soldiers, have been killed in such attacks since then in Israel.
Today’s occurrences coincide with Israel’s ceremonies commemorating the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack that initiated the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon.
