A truck driver has been ‘shot and neutralised’ after ramming his vehicle into a crowd of people at a bus stop in central Israel on Sunday morning.
At least 24 people have been injured in the attack, police said, without clarifying whether it was an attack.
The force however said civilians at the site of the incident ‘shot the truck driver and neutralised him’.
Of those injured, at least 16 people had been transported to nearby hospitals, emergency services said in a statement.
Preliminary police findings showed the driver also hit a bus that had stopped at the same location to drop off passengers, the police said in a statement.
The incident occurred at Aharon Yariv Boulevard in Ramat HaSharon, north of Tel Aviv.
Officers and ambulances rushed to the scene, where Israeli television channels showed police cordoning off the area as medics helped the injured and a helicopter hovered above.
In a statement, Israel’s emergency services said: ‘At 10:08 AM, a report was received in MDA’s 101 Emergency Call Center in the Yarkon Region of a truck hitting a bus stop on Aharon Yariv Boulevard in Ramat Hasharon.
‘MDA EMTs and Paramedics are currently providing medical treatment on site to dozens of casualties.’
A spokesman for Israel’s ambulance service quoted by Israeli newspaper Haaretz said many of the injured were elderly citizens who had disembarked from a bus ahead of a visit to the nearby Israel Defense Forces (IDF) base in Glilot.
A similar incident has taken place near the Hizma checkpoint north of Jerusalem, which has seen two IDF soldiers injured following a suspected ramming attack. Military sources reported the attacker had been shot and killed.
The attacks come following increased Israeli aggression in Iran and Lebanon, which saw missiles rain down on Tehran last night, killing four Iranian soldiers.
At least three people have also been killed during Israeli airstrikes on Zawtar al-Sharkiya in southern Lebanon, the country’s health ministry said.
The ministry said five people were killed and one injured after an Israeli airstrike targeted Marjayoun, also in southern Lebanon, on Saturday.
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