A driver rammed his truck into a crowd of people at a bus stop in central Israel on Sunday, killing one man and injuring more than two dozen people, doctors and police said.
At least 35 people were injured in the incident near Glilot, just north of Tel Aviv, which took place shortly after 10am local time (8am UK time), police said. The attack took place near the headquarters of Mossad, Israel’s shadowy spy agency.
At least six people are believed to have been seriously injured, and many Israeli media outlets reported that people were trapped in and around the crash. Five are in moderate condition and 20 in mild condition. Additionally, four people have been treated for anxiety.
Glilot’s footage appears to show several people, including elderly Israelis, trapped by the metal front of the white truck. The force said civilians at the scene “shot the truck driver and neutralized him”, with a spokesperson adding that police are treating the incident as a terrorist attack.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that many of the injured civilians were elderly people who had gotten off a bus before visiting a nearby IDF base.
Hamas, in a statement, said the “heroic ramming attack” that was carried out near the “Mossad headquarters… was in response to the crimes committed by the Zionist occupation” against the Palestinians.
Israeli police investigate the scene of a truck that rammed outside the Glilot military base near Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 27, 2024.
Israeli emergency services clear the scene after a driver plowed his truck into a crowd of people at a bus stop in Ramat Hasharon, north of Tel Aviv, on October 27, 2024.
Israeli police investigate the scene of a truck that rammed outside the Glilot military base near Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 27, 2024.
Paramedic Elior Yosef, who arrived at the bus stop after the crash, said he saw eight people “trapped under the truck.”
“Some other victims were lying or walking near the truck,” Magen David Adom said in the statement.
Preliminary police findings showed that the driver also crashed into a bus that had stopped at the same location to drop off passengers, police said in a statement.
Earlier on Sunday, the Magen David Adom emergency service said the incident occurred on Aharon Yariv Boulevard in Ramat HaSharon, north of the commercial center of Tel Aviv.
Of the injured, at least 16 people were taken to nearby hospitals, the MDA said in a statement.
Officers and ambulances rushed to the scene, where Israeli television channels showed police cordoning off the area while medics helped the injured and a helicopter flew overhead.
Highway 5 was closed to traffic and Israeli police asked drivers to use alternative routes and avoid the area.
Politicians, including Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, have already flocked to the scene of the incident.
A truck driver rammed his vehicle (pictured) into a crowd of people at a bus stop in central Israel on Sunday, injuring at least 35 people.
Israeli emergency services clear the scene after a driver plowed his truck into a crowd of people at a bus stop in Ramat Hasharon, north of Tel Aviv, on October 27, 2024.
Israeli police inspect the truck driver’s body at the scene of a car-ramming attack in Ramat Hasharon, north of Tel Aviv, on October 27, 2024.
Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir watches the scene of a truck ramming in front of the Glilot military base near Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 27, 2024.
At least six people were seriously injured in the accident
Israeli police are still investigating the incident.
The incident comes as Israel holds ceremonies to mark the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Hamas attack on October 7 last year that sparked the ongoing wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
It also comes as Israeli strikes in northern Gaza have killed at least 22 people, mostly women and children, Palestinian officials said on Sunday, as the Israeli offensive in the isolated and hard-hit north entered its third week and aid groups described a humanitarian catastrophe.
Meanwhile, Iran’s supreme leader said Israeli attacks on the country over the weekend “should neither be exaggerated nor minimized,” stopping short of calling for retaliation, suggesting Iran is carefully weighing its response to the attack.
Dozens of people were rushed to hospital to receive treatment for their injuries.
The incident is being treated as a terrorist attack.
Police are working to determine the identity of the attacker
On Saturday, Israeli warplanes attacked military targets in Iran in response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack earlier this month.
The exchange of fire has raised fears of an all-out regional war pitting Israel and the United States against Iran and its militant allies, which include Hamas and the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, where Israel launched a ground invasion earlier this month. after almost a year of lower level conflict.
The Israeli military said on Sunday that four soldiers, including a military rabbi, were killed in fighting in southern Lebanon, without providing details about the circumstances. Five other staff members were seriously injured, he added.
A view of the area as medical teams respond to dozens of people at the scene after a truck crashed into a bus stop, north of Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 27, 2024.
An Israeli police officer inspects the interior of the cabin of a truck that crashed into a bus stop near the headquarters of the Israeli spy agency Mossad, injuring dozens of people, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service. near Tel Aviv, Israel.
Netanyahu says attacks on Iran achieved Israel’s goals
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the attacks “severely damaged” Iran and achieved all of Israel’s goals.
‘The air force attacked all of Iran. “We severely damaged Iran’s defense capabilities and its ability to produce missiles aimed at us,” Netanyahu said in his first public comments on the attacks.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s 85-year-old supreme leader, said that “it is up to the authorities to determine how to convey the power and will of the Iranian people to the Israeli regime and take measures that serve the interests of this nation and country.”
Khamenei would make any final decision on how Iran responds.