The incident comes amid spiraling violence in Israel and the occupied West Bank, convincing one fed-up Jerusalem resident that all powers involved « want the division. »
« As a result of the ramming, there are two dead and another five injured, » an Israeli police statement said. Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek hospital said those who died were 8 and 20 years old.
« The suspect was neutralized on the spot » in Ramot, a Jewish settlement in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, the Israeli police said, describing it as a « terror » attack.
« Forces of the Jerusalem district, including a detective who was off duty, arrived quickly at the scene, and fired at the terrorist who was neutralized on the spot, » the police added in a separate statement.
An AFP journalist at the scene saw a blue car which had crashed into a bus stop. A pink children’s doll was among debris nearby.
A helicopter circled the scene overhead.
Dozens of onlookers gathered at the scene, many of them ultra-Orthodox Jews dressed in black and white clothes.
