Dozens of people were wounded, some critically, after a truck slammed into a bus stop near a military base in Glilot in central Israel, according to the country’s emergency service Magen David Adom (MDA).
Israeli media outlets claimed police were treating the incident as a “terror attack,” although police were yet to verify this publicly.
Israeli police said: “Near Cinema City Gillot, a truck hit a number of people who were standing near a bus stop.
“A large police force is on its way to the scene.
“At this point, the circumstances of the incident are being investigated.”
Unconfirmed reports suggested IDF soldiers were among the injured.
Mr Adom said paramedics were treating dozens of people, with other sources putting the figure at 40, included six who were seriously injured. Meanwhile police, who said the truck driver had been “neutralised”, put the number at 24.
Police said the circumstances behind the incident were not immediately clear but Israelhas seen a rise in ramming attacks by Palestinians in recent weeks.
The incident occurred on a road close to the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad spy agency.
Pictures circulating online show paramedics and a casualty on a stretcher, with some media outlets claiming some casualties remain trapped under the lorry.
One eyewitness told the Jerusalem Post: “It was a difficult scene with a truck, a bus, and pedestrians. We provided initial treatment at the scene to over 20 people (at this stage) who sustained varying degrees of injuries.
“Some of them were rescued by fire crews in serious condition after being trapped under the truck. Members of United Hatzalah’s Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit also provided assistance at the scene to several people who suffered from emotional shock”.
Israeli broadcaster Now 14, which said the “terrorist” involved had been “neutralised”, has also carried reports about a shooting nearby.
Israeli strikes on northern Gaza have killed at least 22 people, mostly women and children, Palestinian officials said Sunday, as its offensive in the hard-hit and isolated northIsrael-hamas-war”>entered a third week and aid groups described a humanitarian catastrophe.
The Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency service said that 11 women and two children were among those killed in the strikes late Saturday on several homes and buildings in the northern town of Beit Lahiya.
It said another 15 people were wounded and that the death toll could rise. It listed the names of those killed, who mostly came from three families.
The Israeli military said it carried out a precise strike on militants in a structure in Beit Lahiya and took steps to avoid harming civilians. It disputed what it said were “numbers published by the media,” without elaborating or providing evidence for its own account.
