Attack comes a day after an Israeli army reservist in civilian clothes rammed his vehicle into a Palestinian man praying on the roadside.
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.
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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 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”.
Since Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza began in October 2023, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed there.
At the same time, Israeli settlers have escalated violence in the West Bank, seizing Palestinian land and harassing civilians while Israeli forces conduct regular raids and arrests.
More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7, 2023, mostly in operations by security forces and some by settler violence, according to the United Nations.
In the same period, 57 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks.
After Friday’s incident, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said he had instructed the military to respond forcefully in the West Bank town of Qabatiya, where he said the assailant came from.
The Israeli military said it was “preparing for an operation” in the area.
