Two killed as car ploughs into Jerusalem-area bus stop

Two people including a child were killed and several injured when a Palestinian driver rammed his car into a group of people at a bus stop on the outskirts of Jerusalem on Friday, Israeli emergency services said. A police spokesman said the driver, who was shot at the scene, was dead.

Two people including a child were killed and several injured when a Palestinian driver rammed his car into a group of people at a bus stop on the outskirts of Jerusalem on Friday, Israeli emergency services said.

A police spokesman said the driver, who was shot at the scene, was dead. An Israeli security official identified him as Hussain Qraqaa, 31, a resident of Issawia in East Jerusalem. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incident as a terrorist attack and ordered security forces to be reinforced.

A volunteer medic with United Hatzalah ambulance service, Ariel Ben-David, told Army Radio: "Everyone was lying out, thrown about, in very bad condition. To our regret, one child did not survive." The incident occurred during a period of rising anxiety in Israel over security following an attack in which a lone Palestinian gunman killed seven people outside a synagogue last month.

Israeli forces have carried out hundreds of arrests over recent months during near-daily raids in the occupied West Bank that have seen bloody gunbattles with Palestinian militants. At least 42 Palestinians, including gunmen and civilians, have been killed so far this year.

A spokesman for Hamas, the Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip, praised Friday's attack as a "heroic operation" but did not claim responsibility. A man who said he had witnessed the attack from his car told Israel's Channel 12 news that an armed civilian had shot the attacker before a police officer arrived and also shot into the car.

As well as a six year-old boy, a 20 year-old man was also killed. The six-year-old's brother was critically injured in the incident, Channel 12 News said. Footage circulated on social media showed a blue car that had crashed into a pole in front of the bus stop in the Ramot area, a part of Jerusalem that was annexed by Israel after the 1967 Middle Eastern war. Israel considers the land within the Jerusalem city limits.

Hardline Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is responsible for police forces in the area, visited the scene and was greeted by angry crowds who surrounded him, some chanting "Death to terrorists!". "Nothing is more difficult than arriving at an incident in which a child has been killed," Ben-Gvir said. "I have said more than once that I want to institute the death penalty for terrorists."

He said he had instructed police to set up check points around Issawiya, the area in East Jerusalem where the suspected attacker came from.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)