At least 2 dead, including a child, as driver rams bus stop in East Jerusalem

JERUSALEM – A man on Friday drove a car into a group of people at a bus stop outside an Israeli settlement on the northern edge of East Jerusalem, killing two people, including a 6-year-old child, and wounding at least five others in what the police said was a terrorist attack.

Police said a detective shot and killed the driver, who the Israeli news media reported was a Palestinian from another part of East Jerusalem.

The events were the latest in a surge of violence that has set off comparisons with aspects of a Palestinian insurgency two decades ago, known as the second Palestinian intifada, in which roughly 1,000 Israelis and 3,000 Palestinians were killed.

The car ramming came two weeks after a Palestinian gunman killed seven civilians at an Israeli settlement elsewhere in East Jerusalem, and amid the deadliest period in years for Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

More than 40 Palestinians have been shot dead by Israeli forces since the start of 2023, most of them in gunfights that broke out during Israeli operations to arrest Palestinian gunmen based in Palestinian areas of the West Bank.

The escalation has prompted fears of even greater violence, because it follows the formation of new and increasingly active Palestinian armed groups and the election of a new Israeli government – the most right-wing in Israeli history – that has asserted exclusive rights over land that Palestinians hoped would form the backbone of a future Palestinian state.

The attack on Friday occurred shortly before 1.30pm on a highway leading north from Jerusalem and through the occupied West Bank, outside a settlement mainly populated by highly religious Jews.

Video and photos circulated on social media after the attack showed that the car – a blue sedan – collided with a lamp post next to a bus stop, hitting several people and propelling them onto a patch of land several yards to the north. Several appeared to be lying motionless on the ground, while others were sitting upright.

The police did not immediately confirm the identities or nationalities of either the victims or the assailant.

“It was a shocking scene,” said Mr Lishai Shemesh, a paramedic who witnessed the attack, according to a statement distributed by his emergency medical group, Magen David Adom.

“I was in the car with my wife and children and noticed a car driving fast into the bus stop and crushing the people who were waiting there,” Mr Shemesh said.

“We saw several victims including 6- to 8-year-old children who were lying unconscious,” he added.

Israeli authorities, including the police, described the incident as a terrorist attack. The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the driver’s home, in another part of East Jerusalem, would be sealed and demolished.

Government officials say the demolition of attackers’ homes – a standard Israeli practice – is necessary to deter future attacks, and have promised to scale up demolitions of illegal Palestinian construction in general.

Critics and Palestinians say it is counterproductive and exacerbates resentment among Palestinians in East Jerusalem, who complain of systematic discrimination, including restrictions on access to residential housing.

East Jerusalem was captured by Israel from Jordan during the Arab-Israeli war of 1967 and later annexed and settled by more than 200,000 Israelis. Israel considers East Jerusalem an indivisible part of its capital, but Palestinians hope it will become the capital of a future Palestinian state, and most of the world considers it occupied territory.

Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip, praised but did not claim responsibility for the attack. NYTIMES