9 injured in car-ramming attack in central Israel: sources

JERUSALEM, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- A Palestinian driver rammed his car into pedestrians on Thursday afternoon in central Israel, injuring at least nine people before being shot dead by police, Israeli sources said.

The Hillel Yaffe Hospital, which received the injuries, said in a statement that one of the injured was in critical condition, two were in serious condition, and the remaining six had moderate injuries.

Three more people were treated for panic, said the hospital.

Calling the incident "a terror attack," the police said in a statement that the suspect was a 53-year-old Palestinian man from the Jenin area in the occupied West Bank, who drove his vehicle into a group of civilians standing at a bus stop on Highway 65 near the Pardes Hanna-Karkur intersection.

The driver "stayed in Israel without a permit and was married to an Israeli citizen," the police said.

The incident came amid an ongoing large-scale Israeli assault in the northern West Bank and as a fragile truce took hold in Gaza after 15 months of devastating onslaught. ■