A vehicle rammed into pedestrians in northern Israel on Thursday in what police described as a “suspected terror attack”, leaving at least 10 people wounded, according to medics.
“There is suspicion that this is a terror attack. Police forces successfully intercepted a suspicious vehicle, apprehending a suspect suspected to be responsible for the ramming” at the Karkur junction south of the city of Haifa, police said in a statement.
Israel’s first responders, Magen David Adom, said its team treated 10 injured people at the site of the incident, including a 17-year old girl who was in critical condition.
The suspect was a “53-year-old Palestinian from the Jenin area, (who) was in Israel unlawfully and married to an Israeli citizen”, police said in a statement.
“Preliminary findings indicate that he deliberately targeted civilians waiting at a bus stop,” it added.
Tensions have been high in recent weeks as the Israeli military carries out a major offensive in the northern occupied West Bank, deploying tanks for the first time in 20 years.
Dubbed “Iron Wall” by the Israeli military, the operation came days after a ceasefire took effect in Gaza and spans multiple refugee camps near the cities of Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas.
Military operations are commonplace in Jenin’s refugee camp, whose population the UN estimated to be around 24,000 before the offensive began.
Jenin refugee camp has long been considered a bastion of Palestinian militancy which Israel has sought to eradicate for years.
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