NABLUS: Apparently coordinated car-rammings in central Israel on Monday, claimed the life of a woman and injured 12 other people, police and medical officials said, as tensions soared over the more than three-month-old Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip.

Police described the incident in Raanana, north of Tel Aviv, as a terrorist attack and said two suspects were under arrest. The two are from the same family in Hebron, a city in the occupied West Bank, and entered Israel illegally, police said.

“They went out together and in parallel, to two different locations, took two cars and launched a series of rammings,” central district police chief Avi Biton told reporters in Raanana, a city north of Tel Aviv where the incident took place.

According to Reuters, there was no immediate claim of responsibility. At least one of the vehicles had been stolen, police said earlier.

Israeli TV showed scattered personal items on a pavement and said several children were among the injured.

While quoting police, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported that police suspect the presence of more attackers in the area and have launched a search operation along with heavy deployment of security forces

Separately, Israel arrested students at a university in the occupied West Bank in an early morning raid on Monday because of their alleged support for Hamas, AFP quoted sources on both sides as saying.

The students attend An-Najah National University in Nablus, which called for their immediate release and labelled the army raid a “blatant Israeli aggression”.

The university and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, a campaign group, said 25 students had been arrested in the raid. Tensions have.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2024