Israeli emergency responders gather at the site of a reported ramming attack in Jerusalem on Feb. 10, 2023. Six people, including two children, were injured when a car crashed into a bus stop in East Jerusalem, Israeli medics said, in what police called a "suspected ramming attack". (Credit: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)
Two people, one of them a child, were killed when a car rammed a bus stop in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem Friday, Israeli authorities said.
The attack comes amid spiraling violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A police spokesperson said that at around 1:30 pm (1130 GMT) the car's driver, a 31-year-old resident of Issawiya, a Palestinian neighborhood of East Jerusalem, hit "at high speed ... innocent people waiting at the bus stop."
"As a result of the ramming, there are two dead and another five injured," an Israeli police statement added.
"The suspect was neutralized on the spot" in Ramot, a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem, the police said, describing it as a "terror" attack.
Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek hospital said one of the dead was 20 years old, while police later said the child was aged six.
A hospital spokesperson identified the 20-year-old as Alter Shlomo Lederman, a yeshiva student who died from his injuries shortly after being admitted to hospital.
The spokesperson added that a second child, aged eight, was in a critical condition, with doctors "fighting to keep him alive."
An AFP journalist at the scene saw a blue car that had crashed into a bus stop. A pink child's doll was in the debris nearby.
"I saw people thrown to the ground [by the car], and how they killed him [the driver] and how his head fell on the steering wheel," Shimon, 18, who lives in Ramot, told AFP.
Protesters at the scene took Israel's far-right Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to task for failing to live up to his election promises to restore security.
He reiterated his desire to "implement death penalty legislation for terrorists."
A statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he had "decided to take immediate action to seal and demolish the home of the terrorist."
Late last month, an attack killed six Israelis and a Ukrainian outside a synagogue in East Jerusalem, a day after the deadliest Israeli army raid in years in the occupied West Bank claimed 10 lives.
The synagogue attack was the deadliest targeting Israeli civilians in more than a decade.
'Crazy'
Dozens of onlookers gathered at the scene of Friday's attack, many wearing the black and white attire of ultra-Orthodox Jews.
Nehurai Dery, who runs a construction company and had been going to visit his father in Ramot, told AFP, "It's crazy what's happening.
"The government should [find] a solution, but the government doesn't want a solution. The government here, the government in Gaza, in Ramallah, they want the division."
The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad praised the attack as a "heroic" operation and a "natural and legitimate response to the crimes of the occupation [Israel]."
"Such horrific attacks and their glorification are fueling an endless cycle of bloodshed and should be condemned by all," UN Middle East peace envoy Tor Wennesland said. "Leaders must act responsibly."
Friday's attack followed a week of violence in the West Bank.
Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian near the city of Hebron Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry said, after what the army called a "stabbing attack."
Troops shot dead a Palestinian teenager in the city of Nablus Tuesday, the health ministry said, with the Israeli military saying he had fired on soldiers.
A day earlier, Israeli forces killed five suspected Palestinian gunmen in a raid in Jericho, after a days-long search for suspects in a restaurant shooting.
Deadly year
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has seen at least 43 Palestinians — including attackers, militants and civilians — killed this year.
Eight Israeli civilians, including two children, and one Ukrainian have been killed over the same period, according to an AFP tally based on official statements.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel and the West Bank last month, and in talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders urged both sides to prevent further bloodshed.
Last year was the deadliest year in the West Bank since the United Nations started tracking fatalities in the territory in 2005.
Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move not recognized by the international community.