A driver in Israel plowed into a bus station, injuring nine people, including one person critically, in what police suspect was a ramming attack.
Israeli police said a suspected ramming attack Thursday injured at least nine people, including a 17-year-old girl who is critically wounded, Fox News has learned.
The incident happened at a bus station in Karkur Junction on Route 65 in northern Israel. The driver was also hurt and then “neutralized” at the scene, though police have not elaborated.
All of those wounded were evacuated to a nearby hospital. Of the nine victims, another two were “severely wounded,” while six were “lightly” wounded, Fox News is told.
An Israeli police spokesperson said in a statement obtained by Fox News identified the driver as a 53-year-old Palestinian from the Jenin area who was “in Israel unlawfully and married to an Israeli citizen.”
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“Preliminary findings indicate that he deliberately targeted civilians waiting at a bus stop,” the statement said. “The terrorist has been neutralized. This remains an active investigation.”
The police commissioner is conducting “an on-site situational assessment” in the wake of the incident, the statement added.
Graphic images show a man’s body in the street next to the vehicle used in the incident and members of the Israeli security forces nearby in a cordoned-off area.
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There is a heavy police presence in the area, as a search for other possible attackers is underway.
Tensions have been escalating in the West Bank in recent days. On Sunday, Israel sent tanks into the northern West Bank down of Jenin for the first time in two decades, Reuters reported.
Thursday’s incident in Israel comes as House Republicans were already introducing a new bill to address the rising threat of vehicular terrorism. House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green, R-Tenn., and Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., who chairs the Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security, introduced a bill on the heels of the ISIS-inspired terrorist attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day that killed 14 people.
The bill would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to conduct an annual report on emerging threats and countermeasures related to vehicular terrorism. The legislation cites how individuals on U.S. soil “are increasingly being radicalized to commit violence against Americans, frequently through ISIS publications and propaganda, with vehicular-ramming attacks emerging as a significant and growing method.”
This is a developing news story. Check back for updates. Fox News’ Yael Kuriel and Thomas Ferraro contributed to this report.
