At least 10 people were injured after a vehicle rammed into pedestrians in northern Israel's Haifa on Thursday, AFP reported. The police are describing the incident as a “suspected terror attack”.
According to the police, the driver of the vehicle was neutralised at the Karkur junction, south of the city of Haifa, reported the Associated Press.
“There is suspicion that this is a terror attack,” the police said in a statement, according to AFP. “Police forces successfully intercepted a suspicious vehicle, apprehending a suspect believed to be responsible for the ramming.”
Israel's first responders, Magen David Adom, said their team was treating seven persons at the site of the incident, including one person who is in a serious condition.
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Who is the suspect?
Police identified the suspect as a 53-year-old Palestinian from the northern West Bank who lived in Israel and was married to an Israeli citizen, according to an Associated Press report.
Paramedic Avi Cohen described the scene in Pardes Hanna-Karkur, a town south of Haifa, as chaotic. "When we arrived, they were lying on the ground. We immediately began providing medical treatment to all the injured, including stopping bleeding and bandaging wounds," the AP report quoted Cohen's statement from Magen David Adom, Israel's emergency rescue service.
{{/usCountry}}Paramedic Avi Cohen described the scene in Pardes Hanna-Karkur, a town south of Haifa, as chaotic. "When we arrived, they were lying on the ground. We immediately began providing medical treatment to all the injured, including stopping bleeding and bandaging wounds," the AP report quoted Cohen's statement from Magen David Adom, Israel's emergency rescue service.
{{/usCountry}}The “suspected terror attack” comes amid a fragile three-phased ceasefire between the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel.
The initial phase of the ceasefire included the handover of 33 Israeli hostages in return for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in Israeli jails. Fighting was paused and Israeli troops withdrew from some positions in Gaza.
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Israel had launched its campaign against Hamas in Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, when militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages back, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, more than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to health authorities there.