14 injured in suspected ‘terror attack’ in northern Israel, Hamas calls it 'heroic'

At least 14 people were hurt in a car-ramming attack in northern Israel on Thursday (February 27) in what police described as a “terror” incident.

“There is suspicion that this is a terror attack. Police forces successfully intercepted a suspicious vehicle, apprehending a suspect suspected to be responsible for the ramming," said a police statement.

The incident occurred at the Karkur junction, south of the city of Haifa.

At the site, the attacker also stabbed two policemen with a screwdriver.

Channel 12 news quoted a police officer as saying that the attacker had been “neutralised”.

“The terrorist is in police hands. He has been neutralised.”

“The car accelerated and hit a group of people at Karkur Junction. It hit a bus stop,” the officer added.

“From there, he tried to continue on with the car. He accelerated toward a nearby police car and hit it. The officers chased him, caught him and neutralised him.”

Who is the suspect?

Police have identified the suspect as a 53-year-old Palestinian from Jenin, who had been residing in Israel without a permit while married to an Israeli citizen.

Of the 14 victims, two were critically hurt, including one 17-year-old.

Hamas praises the attack

Palestinian militant group Hamas immediately lauded the attack, terming it a “natural, heroic response to the brutal aggression” of the Israeli forces.

“The ramming and stabbing operation that took place this afternoon in the Karkur area near Hadera is a natural, heroic response to the brutal aggression and ongoing crimes committed by the occupation in the occupied West Bank, especially in its northern governorates, and to the continued Judaization operations and attempts to control Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Ibrahimi Mosque and our Islamic sanctities,” the group said Thursday.

“This operation represents a message to the extremist occupation government and its ministers that in the West Bank, the occupied interior and all of Palestine there are heroic resistance fighters and free revolutionaries who will not give up their rights, and that the resistance will continue until the occupation is removed from all of our land,” the statement added.

(More to follow)