Authorities say at least 1 dead, 17 injured in twin attacks in central Israel

Israeli police announced two Palestinian suspects from the occupied West Bank were arrested in connection with Monday’s attacks in the city of Raanana north of Tel Aviv.

“Both suspects, Hebron residents, who entered Israel illegally, are in police custody,” the police wrote on X.

In an earlier statement, police claimed two suspects stole vehicles and ran over a number of residents in different locations.

“A wounded woman who arrived in a critical condition after having been hit by a vehicle has died of her injuries despite our efforts to save her,” said a statement from Meir Medical Center near the site of the assaults.

At least 17 other people were being treated for injuries, including two seriously, medics from the Magen David Adom emergency service added.

The Palestinian movement Hamas has praised a retaliatory operation near Tel Aviv as a “natural” response to Israel’s ongoing genocidal war against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.

“We confirm that the ‘Ra’anana’ operation, carried out by the heroes of our steadfast Palestinian people, is a natural response to the massacres of the Nazi occupation and its continuous aggression against our Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza,” Hamas announced.

The movement stressed that the retaliatory attacks would continue against the “Nazi” Israeli regime until the occupation was ended.

“The heroes of our people and … fighters from Rafah to Jenin will continue to defend our people, our land, and our holy sites against the criminal Nazi enemy. The blood of children and unarmed civilians shed by the Zionist war machine in the West Bank and Gaza will be a curse upon the occupation and its … settlers, who will find no safety or security on our occupied land,” Hamas said.

“We mobilize our revolutionary youth throughout the West Bank and al-Quds, calling on them to escalate the struggle and revolution until the Nazi occupation is defeated, our land and holy sites are liberated, and our Palestinian state with al-Quds as its capital is established, God willing,” it added.

The Islamic Jihad movement also hailed the “heroic operation” by the Palestinians and called it a natural response to “the crimes of the occupation against our steadfast people”.

“The Zionist enemy’s insistence on pursuing policies of oppression, terrorism, and brutal killing in the cities of the West Bank and Gaza, and targeting all its components in full view of the entire world, is a losing bet that will not undermine the steadfastness of our people, wherever they are,” it announced in a statement.

Pressure has been ramping up in Israel and across the occupied West Bank since October 7, when Hamas fighters launched an unprecedented assault into southern Israel and killed nearly 1,200 people and took about 240 captives.

The attack triggered a brutal response from Israel which vowed to root out the armed group from the Gaza Strip in a military campaign that has killed more than 24,000 people.

Since then, violence has surged across the occupied West Bank where Israeli forces have conducted near-daily raids.

This resulted in the killing of more than 300 people across the occupied Palestinian territories by Israeli forces and settlers, according to UN data.