Four Israelis wounded in car-ramming attack at West Bank bus stop

Four Israelis were wounded, one seriously, when a car driven by a Palestinian man drove into a crowd of people standing at a West Bank bus stop.

A car with Palestinian license plates driving at high speed near the Alon Shvut settlement in the Gush Etzion bloc veered into a bus stop on the side of the road on Thursday afternoon in what is believed to be a terror attack, according to Israeli news reports. The driver, later identified as Muhammed Arfaya, 22 from Hebron, was arrested soon after the incident and turned over to the Shin Bet security service for questioning. He reportedly confessed to perpetrating the attack in order to hurt Israelis.

According to the Shin Bet,  he was released a year ago from a priosn sentence for throwing stones.

The four victims range in age from 16-25. Two are reported to be high school students and one a student at Yeshivat Har Etzion in Alon Shvut, Ynet reported.

The attack occurred near the junction where in November an Israeli woman, Dalia Lemkus, was stabbed to death and a Palestinian man drove his vehicle into three soldiers waiting for rides. Other vehicular and stabbing attacks have occurred in the area. It also is the same junction where, in June, three Israeli teens were abducted. The teens were later killed.

There have been a series of vehicular attacks on Israelis by Palestinian drivers in the Jerusalem area in recent months.