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Two people dead in stabbing, car-ramming attack in Israel
Two people have died in a stabbing and car-ramming attack in northern Israel, officials say.
Israeli police and emergency workers said a Palestinian from the Israeli-occupied West Bank attacked and killed a man and a woman on Friday before he was shot and wounded.
The attack came a day after an Israeli military reservist dressed in civilian clothes rammed his vehicle into a Palestinian man who was praying on a roadside in the West Bank after earlier firing shots in the area.
“Footage was received of an armed individual running over a Palestinian individual,” the Israeli military said in a statement about Thursday’s attack, adding that the Israeli reservist’s military service had been terminated. The Palestinian man went to hospital for checks after the attack before returning home.
In Friday’s incident, Israeli police said the attacker first crashed his vehicle into people in the northern city of Beisan (Beit Shean), killing a 68-year-old man, and then sped onto a highway.
Later, he fatally stabbed a 20-year-old woman near the highway, “and the suspect was ultimately engaged with gunfire near Maonot Junction in Afula following intervention by a civilian bystander,” police said, adding that the attacker was taken to a hospital.
Both the victims were pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, Israel’s rescue services said. A teenage boy was hospitalised with minor wounds sustained in the car-ramming, according to bystanders.
The Israeli military said the attacker had “infiltrated into Israeli territory several days ago”.
Israeli security forces inspect the scene where a vehicle was used by assailant in a suspected ramming and stabbing attack that killed two people in northern Israel according to Israeli authorities, in Afula, Israel December 26
Israeli forces kill Palestinian in Gaza, carry out raids across West Bank
Israeli forces have fatally shot a Palestinian man east of Gaza City as they continue their ceasefire violations and carry out sweeping raids across the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian news service Wafa reported on Friday that Israeli forces opened fire on Uday al-Maqadma while he was sitting near the entrance of a school in Gaza. He was taken to hospital in critical condition and died of his injuries at the hospital.
Attacks by Israeli settlers and raids by Israeli soldiers have intensified in the occupied West Bank, as well.
Wafa reported that a Palestinian municipal worker was injured after being attacked by a group of settlers outside of Nablus on Friday, while Palestinian farmers trying to work on their land were detained by Israeli forces east of Tubas.
Several Palestinians were also detained during Israeli raids targeting the communities of Yatta and Beit Ummar near Hebron, including a woman, four children, and an elderly man, who Palestinian activists say was arrested after settlers damaged the fence around his home.
Additionally to the violence against Palestinians, Israel has also been carrying our near daily attacks in Lebanon in violation of the ceasefire there.
United Nations peacekeeping forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said on Friday that they again came under “heavy machinegun fire” from Israeli positions in southern Lebanon. The UN forces said that live ammunition and a grenade made impact “close” to a patrol inspecting a roadblock in the village of Bastara.
“UNIFIL had informed the [Israeli military] about the activities in those areas in advance, following usual practice for patrols in sensitive areas near the Blue Line,” the UN forces said in a statement.
“Attacks on or near peacekeepers are serious violations of Security Council resolution 1701. We reiterate call to the [Israeli military] to cease aggressive behaviour and attacks on or near peacekeepers working for peace and stability along the Blue Line.”
