CAR RAMS BUS STOP IN ISRAEL; 2 KILLED, 5 INJURED

A man on Friday drove a car into a group of people at a bus stop outside an Israeli settlement on the northern edge of East Jerusalem, killing two people, including a 6-year-old child, and wounding at least five others in what the police said was a terrorist attack.

Police said an off-duty detective shot and killed the driver, who the Israeli news media reported was a Palestinian from another part of East Jerusalem.

The car ramming came two weeks after a Palestinian gunman killed seven civilians at an Israeli settlement elsewhere in East Jerusalem, and amid the deadliest period in years for Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

More than 40 Palestinians have been shot dead by Israeli forces since the start of the year, most of them in gunfights that broke out during Israeli operations to arrest Palestinian gunmen based in Palestinian areas of the West Bank.

The escalation has prompted fears of even greater violence, because it follows the formation of new and increasingly active Palestinian armed groups and the election of a new Israeli government — the most right-wing in Israeli history — that has asserted exclusive rights over land that Palestinians hoped would form the backbone of a future Palestinian state.

Police said Friday’s attacker was in his 30s and from an Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem.

The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swiftly announced that the driver’s home, in another part of East Jerusalem, would be sealed and demolished. Footage later showed police officers arriving at the home and arresting at least one person inside.