Woman killed, 17 injured in car-ramming attack in central Israel

JERUSALEM, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Combined car-ramming and stabbing attacks carried out by two Palestinians killed an elderly woman and wounded 17 others in central Israel on Monday, Israeli authorities said.

Commander of the Central District of Israeli Police Avi Bitton said that two suspects were in custody after being arrested at the scene in the city of Ra'anana, northeast of Tel Aviv.

In a statement, Israel's internal security agency Shin Bet identified the attackers as Ahmed Zidat, 25, and Mahmoud Zidad, 44, members of the same family from Hebron, a city in the occupied West Bank. They entered Israel without permits.

"They acted together and in parallel, approaching two separate locations, took two cars and launched a series of ramming attacks," Bitton said.

He said the two attackers switched cars three times during their rampage, including one that they took over by stabbing the driver, and rammed the vehicles into pedestrians in several locations in Ra'anana.

Video footage on Israel's Kan TV news showed personal belongings strewn across the road and a shattered bus stop, with at least four children reportedly injured in the attack, the report said.

The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) issued a statement on Monday claiming responsibility for the twin attacks in Ra'anana, describing it as "a natural response to the occupation's massacres and its continued aggression against our Palestinian people."

Yaron Muskat, the director of the Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba, a nearby city, told reporters that a woman in her 70s succumbed to critical wounds in the hospital.

At least 17 people needed medical care, including five who were in serious condition, according to the ZAKA rescue service.