Palestinian shot dead after ramming attack in West Bank

A Palestinian attacker rammed his vehicle into a group of Israelis standing at a hitchhiking station in the West Bank, wounding four of them before he was shot dead by paramilitary officers.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas prays with member of his Fatah executive in Ramallah. Picture: Getty

Israeli Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said two of the Israelis were moderately wounded in the attack, the latest in nearly two months of violence across the region.

Later, the Israeli military said a Palestinian woman stabbed a security guard at the entrance to a West Bank settlement.

The guard was lightly wounded and shot the woman, wounding her.

Since mid-September, 11 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks, most of them stabbings, while 74 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, including 47 whom Israel said were involved in attacks or attempted attacks.

The other 27 Palestinians were killed in clashes between stone-throwers and security forces.

Last week, back-to-back Palestinian shootings wounded three Israelis, two of them seriously.

Israeli troops, meanwhile, shot and killed a 73-year-old Palestinian woman in what the military said was an attempt to attack them with her car.

Her son denied she tried to harm anyone, saying she was on her way to lunch with her sister when she was killed.

All three incidents took place in Hebron, the West Bank’s largest city, which has been the main area of friction in recent weeks.

Hundreds of combat troops guard about 850 Jewish settlers in the centre of Hebron, where they live amid tens of thousands of Palestinians.

On Friday afternoon, shots were fired at Jewish worshippers leaving a major shrine in the Israeli-controlled downtown area, wounding two people, one of them seriously.

Searches for the assailants were underway.

Media reports said a 16-year-old was seriously wounded and an 18-year-old was lightly hurt. They added that the shots were fired from a distance.