Two people have been killed in what police say was a “rolling terror attack” in northern Israel.
Police said the attacker ran over a pedestrian in the eastern city of Beit Shean, then drove on before stabbing a woman near Ein Harod, about 8 miles (12.5km) to the west.
A 68-year-old man was killed and a 16-year-old boy was hurt in the ramming, officials said, whilst the stabbing victim was an 18-year-old woman.
The suspect was eventually shot and wounded later by a civilian outside the city of Afula, according to police.
A day before the attack, an Israeli reservist was fired after video emerged of him ramming a praying Palestinian with a quad bike.
The suspect in Friday’s attack came from the village of Qabatiya, in the northern occupied West Bank, Israel’s defence minister said.
Following the incident, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was preparing to carry out an operation in the Qabatiya area. Defence Minister Israel Katz said he had instructed the IDF to act “forcefully and immediately”.
The IDF said the suspect had “infiltrated into Israeli territory several days ago”.
Israel’s Kan News public broadcaster said the 37-year-old man had been working illegally in Israel and had used his employer’s vehicle in the attack.
The incident comes a day after the army reservist drove a quad bike into a Palestinian man who was praying on a roadside in the West Bank.
Video shows the man, dressed in civilian clothes but with a firearm, ramming the victim with the vehicle. Reports say the victim was unhurt.
The Israeli military said the soldier – who had earlier opened fire in a nearby village – had been fired and his weapon confiscated.
Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians have surged in the West Bank in recent years, according to the United Nations, with more than a thousand killed since the Hamas attacks on Israel of 7 October 2023 in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 abducted into Gaza.
More than 70,600 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
By BBC News
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