Five wounded in car ramming

Five people were wounded in a car-ramming terror attack near Jerusalem’s Machane Yehuda market on Monday afternoon, police and medics said.

Magen David Adom said its medics treated five people at the scene, including an elderly man in serious condition.

The man, in his 80s, later underwent surgery for multisystemic injuries and doctors were continuing to fight to save his life, said Dr Alon Schwartz, head of trauma at Shaare Zedek hospital.

A woman in her 30s was listed in moderate condition with injuries to her limbs and will likely also require surgery, Schwartz said.

Three others were listed in good condition, including a 50-year-old man and two men aged 25. The five were taken to Shaare Zedek and Hadassah Ein Kerem hospitals in Jerusalem.

Amateur video footage showed an armed civilian shooting into the car’s window as a wounded man lay on the hood of the vehicle. Several other victims were seen strewn across the street.

“A citizen who witnessed the incident and was near the scene shot and neutralised the terrorist, and later he was declared dead at the scene,” police said in a statement.

The Palestinian driver was identified as 39-year-old Hatem Najma, a father of five from the Beit Safafa neighbourhood, which straddles the Green Line. He had no known prior security offences, but was known to have mental heath issues.

On Tuesday, a man was moderately wounded in a shooting attack in the northern West Bank, as Israel was marking Yom Hazikaron, military and medics said.

According to the IDF, the apparent drive-by shooting attack occurred near the so-called British Police junction on the Route 60 highway, close to the West Bank town of Silwad.

The man was part of a group of joggers staging a Yom Hazikaron run commemorating fallen soldiers.

Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have been high for over a year, with the Israeli military conducting near-nightly raids in the West Bank amid a series of deadly Palestinian terror attacks. Palestinian attacks in Israel and the West Bank have left 19 people dead since the beginning of the year and several more seriously hurt.

At least 92 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the year, most of them while carrying out attacks or during clashes with security forces.

A young Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli forces during a raid near the West Bank city of Jericho on Monday morning, Palestinian health officials said.

TIMES OF ISRAEL