Car rams into Israeli troops, Palestinian attackers killed military

Car rams into Israeli troops, Palestinian attackers killed  military

Three Palestinians deliberately drove a car into Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank on Monday, critically injuring an officer, and were shot by troops, the military said.

Israeli media said two of the Palestinians were killed.

In a statement describing the incident as a Palestinian car-ramming attack, the military said two assailants were “neutralized” and a third was slightly wounded.

The military said an officer was critically injured and a soldier slightly hurt when they were run over some 10 km (six miles) northwest of the Palestinian city of Ramallah.

The troops had stopped their vehicle at the roadside at night – Israeli media reported it had broken down – and were deliberately struck, the military said.

Palestinians, many of them individuals without known associations with militant groups, carried out a wave of car-rammings in the West Bank in late 2015 and 2016, but the frequency of such incidents has since decreased.

Israel captured the West Bank in a 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians seek to establish a state there and in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in 2014.

In Monday’s incident, the military said the soldiers were targeted after they had stopped their own vehicle on the roadside at night about 10 km (six miles) northwest of the Palestinian city of Ramallah, the military said. Israeli media reported their car had broken down.

Soldiers fired at the Palestinian car after the ramming, killing two of its occupants, a military spokeswoman said.

In addition to the Israeli officer who was seriously hurt, a soldier was slightly injured, the military said.

Later, the military said in a separate statement that just prior to the attack, Palestinians in the car had thrown firebombs at an Israeli checkpoint and that additional Molotov cocktails had been found in the vehicle.

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Israeli soldiers west bank Palestinians

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