Boy, 6, among two killed and five injured as car ‘driven into pedestrians’ in Jerusalem

Israeli police say suspected assailant rammed vehicle into pedestrians, killing two and injuring five others before being shot and killed

Israeli police forensic team work at the scene in Ramot, a Jewish settlement in east Jerusalem (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

A six year-old boy is among two people killed and five injured in a suspected car-ramming in Jerusalem.

A suspected assailant drove his car into several pedestrians in the east of the city, Israeli police said, the latest incident as violence rises in the contested capital.

Footage from the scene showed police and paramedics swarming a mangled blue Mazda that had slammed into a bus stop in Ramot, a Jewish settlement.

The suspected attacker was shot dead at the scene (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

The police have not identified the victims but the Israeli rescue service had previously said its medics were treating six people, including two children in critical condition undergoing CPR.

A six year-old boy was pronounced dead at the scene, the Times of Israel reports. Two men, ages 27 and 30, are unconscious and in serious condition.

An off-duty officer shot and killed the suspected attacker at the scene, police said.

The Islamic militant groups Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, praised the suspected attack but did not immediately claim responsibility.

Tensions have soared in the Israeli-annexed eastern half of the city, following a Palestinian shooting attack on 27 January that killed seven people in the deadliest attack in Jerusalem in over a decade

Two people were killed and give were injured in the incident (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Hostilities have escalated in east Jerusalem and the West Bank since Israel stepped up raids in the occupied territory last spring, following a series of deadly Palestinian attacks within Israel.

Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 2022, making it the deadliest year in those territories since 2004, according to leading Israeli rights group B’Tselem. Last year, 30 people were killed in Palestinian attacks against Israelis.

So far this year, 43 Palestinians have been killed, according to a count by The Associated Press.