Israeli army says eight soldiers wounded in car-ramming attack
The Israeli army said eight soldiers were wounded on Thursday when a driver deliberately rammed his car into a bus stop in what police called a "terror attack".
The army said two soldiers were "moderately injured" and six "lightly injured" in the attack at the Beit Lid junction near Kfar Yona in central Israel.
"The soldiers were evacuated to a hospital to receive medical treatment and their families have been notified," it said in a statement.
There has been a spate of violence in Israel and the occupied West Bank since the start of the war against Hamas in Gaza, triggered by the Palestinian militants' attack on October 7, 2023.
A teenager died in March this year when police said a car driven by a Palestinian man deliberately ploughed into civilians at a bus stop in northern Israel.
One witness to Thursday's ramming said the driver cut her off the road near Kfar Yona, then "turned his wheel to the right, full gas, as fast as he could, and hit as many people as he could".
Kineret Hanuka, 45, told AFP: "I saw only blood and heard them screaming: 'It hurts!'... It was so hard for me to see this."
Israel's Magen David Adom (MDA) first responders said they received a report at 9:25 am (0625 GMT) that a vehicle had crashed into a bus stop near Kfar Yona.
They said that the wounded had chest, limb and head injuries.
Israeli police spokesman Dedan Elsdunne described the incident as a "terror attack, where a terrorist rammed his vehicle into individuals who were standing here waiting to catch the bus".
"He (the attacker) then attempted to flee. He abandoned his vehicle and fled from that location. We had large police forces who immediately arrived here, set up a perimeter so that we can locate this individual."
The car was later recovered and the driver is being hunted using helicopters, motorbikes and a specialist dog unit, police added.
The site of the crash was cordoned off as forensic investigators combed the scene, AFP journalists reported.
In Israel, at least 32 people, including soldiers, have died in attacks by Palestinians since the start of the Gaza war, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
In the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, at least 960 Palestinians, including many fighters but also civilians, have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to Palestinian Authority figures.
At the same time, at least 36 Israelis, including civilians and soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations, Israeli figures showed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
L'Orient-Le Jour
an hour ago
- L'Orient-Le Jour
French probe Netanyahu lawyer's murder contract claims
French authorities opened an investigation after a lawyer for Benjamin Netanyahu said there was a contract on his head for defending the Israeli leader, the Paris prosecutor's office said on Monday. Olivier Pardo told investigators a former convict, Rudy Terranova, told him on July 16 that he had been approached to carry out a hit on the lawyer, a source close to the case said, confirming a report in the newspaper Le Parisien. Terranova said he was approached to carry out the job while on a trip to Senegal by members of Lebanon's Hezbollah, a key ally of Israel's arch-foe Iran. He said the militants targeted Pardo because of his work for Netanyahu, who has been the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) since November 2024, accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes over Israel's ongoing war in Gaza. Pardo told AFP he was "calm, it's one of the risks of my job when you defend causes which have sparked debate in France." "I am confident that the judiciary will determine whether this is a real or a phantom menace," said the lawyer, who counts prominent French politicians, including the far-right figure Eric Zemmour, among his other clients. According to Le Parisien, Terranova was taken into custody in the week beginning on July 21 in connection with the case, though AFP was not able to confirm this. A former gang member, Terranova was convicted in 2004 of violence considered to be motivated by Islamist radicalism. He served as a police informant and was later suspected of being behind an attempt in 2007 to murder another lawyer, Karim Achoui. He was acquitted of that charge.
L'Orient-Le Jour
an hour ago
- L'Orient-Le Jour
Palestinians say activist killed by settlers in West Bank
The Palestinian Authority's Education Ministry accused Israeli settlers in the West Bank on Monday of killing an activist linked to an Oscar-winning film, while Israeli police said they were investigating the incident. The ministry said on social media that Awdah Muhammad Hathaleen "was shot dead by settlers ... during their attack on the village of Um al-Khair" near Hebron, in the south of the occupied territory. The Israeli police earlier said it was investigating an "incident near Carmel," a settlement neighbouring Um al-Khair. "An Israeli citizen was detained at the scene and then arrested by police for questioning," a police statement said. "Four Palestinians were arrested by IDF (Israeli military) soldiers in connection with the incident, along with two foreign tourists who were at the scene." "Following the incident, the death of a Palestinian was confirmed; his exact involvement in the incident is being verified," the police added. Hathaleen was a resident of Masafer Yatta, a string of hamlets located on the hills south of Hebron, which have been declared a military zone by Israel. Their efforts to prevent Israeli forces from destroying their homes were the subject of "No Other Land," which won Best Documentary at the Oscars in March. Its Israeli co-director, Yuval Abraham, posted a video on Instagram showing a man with a gun in his hand arguing with a group of people, while shouts can be heard in Hebrew and Arabic. "An Israeli settler just shot [Awdah Hathaleen] in the lungs, a remarkable activist who helped us film 'No Other Land' in Masafer Yatta," Abraham wrote. About three million Palestinians live in the West Bank alongside nearly half a million Israelis living in settlements, which are considered illegal under international law. At least 962 Palestinians, including many fighters but also many civilians, have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023. At least 36 Israelis, including civilians and soldiers, have been killed there in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations, according to official Israeli data.
Nahar Net
an hour ago
- Nahar Net
Military court sentences man to death in absentia over Irish peacekeeper's killing
by Naharnet Newsdesk 29 July 2025, 11:59 A Lebanese court sentenced a man to death in absentia for killing an Irish United Nations peacekeeper, a judicial official said Tuesday, after Hezbollah members were accused of involvement in the 2022 incident. Private Sean Rooney, 23, was killed and three others were wounded after a U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) convoy came under fire on December 14, 2022 in south Lebanon, long a stronghold of the Iran-backed militant group. The judicial official, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the media, said Lebanon's military court issued its ruling in the case at around midnight on Monday. The court "imposed the death sentence... on the main defendant, Mohammad Ayyad", the official said, adding that the ruling was issued in absentia. A security source told AFP in December 2022 that Hezbollah had handed Ayyad over to the army that month. But he was released from custody in November 2023 "for health reasons" and had not appeared at any trial session since, the official said Tuesday. The military court also handed a combination of fines and lighter custodial sentences to four other people "who handed themselves in to the court hours before the session" and acquitted a fifth, the official said. Skirmishes occur occasionally between UNIFIL patrols and Hezbollah supporters, but they rarely escalate and are generally quickly contained by Lebanese authorities. In June 2023 a judicial official told AFP that five Hezbollah members were accused of killing Rooney. A Hezbollah official had denied members of the group were involved. UNIFIL, which counts around 10,000 peacekeepers from nearly 50 countries, acts as a buffer between Lebanon and Israel and operates in the south near the border.
