Jerusalem, Feb 6 (IANS) At least 12 Israeli soldiers were injured, including one in critical condition, on Thursday after a car rammed onto pedestrians in Jerusalem, police said.
Israeli Defence Forces spokesperson Hidai Zilberman said the troops were members of the Golani Brigade who were at the First Station, the site of the incident, during a “heritage tour”, reports The Times of Israel.
The incident occurred at about 2 a.m. near Jerusalem’s First Station, a popular entertainment hub.
According to Zilberman, an initial investigation into the attack found that the soldiers were standing on the sidewalk next to the station when the car rammed them suddenly at high-speed.
The police said that the driver of the vehicle fled the scene and “a large force of officers were carrying out searches.”
The car was later found abandoned in the town of Beit Jala outside Bethlehem, but the driver remained at large, the police added.
Medics have said that among the injured one “was in a serious condition, unconscious and suffering major trauma”.
A second soldier was moderately injured with wounds to his limbs, while the rest were lightly hurt and were evacuated to hospitals in the capital, The Times of Israel reported.
The incident comes amid a rise in tensions following the release of US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan, which has already been rejected by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
On January 28, Trump revealed the controversial plan which calls for a two-state solution while recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s “undivided capital”, Xinhua news agency.
During a meeting of Foreign Minister at the OIC headquarters in Jeddah on Monday, the pan-Islamic body rejected the plan and urged its 57 members not to help implement it or “cooperate with the US administration’s efforts to enforce it any way or form”.
Requested by the Palestinian leadership, the OIC meeting came two days after the Arab League rejected the plan, saying that it “does not meet the minimum rights and aspirations of Palestinian people”.
–IANS
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