Lorry driver ‘terror attack’ in Israel as truck rams into crowded bus stop injuring at least 35 people before being ‘shot and neutralised’ by civilians

A truck driver rammed his vehicle into a crowd of people at a bus stop in central Israel on Sunday, injuring at least 35 people before he was ‘shot and neutralised’ in what is believed to have been a terror attack, police said.

At least 35 people were injured in the incident near Glilot, just north of Tel Aviv, which took place just after 10am local time (8am UK time), police said. The attack took place near the headquarters of Mossad, Israel’s shadowy spy agency. 

At least six people are believed to have been seriously injured, with many Israeli news outlet reporting that people were trapped in and around the wreck. Five are in a moderate condition and 20 in mild condition. Additionally, four people have been treated for anxiety.

Footage from Glilot appears to show several people, including elderly Israelis, trapped by the metal front of the white truck.  

The force said civilians at the site of the incident ‘shot the truck driver and neutralised him’, with a spokesperson adding that cops are treating the incident as a terror attack. 

Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that many of the injured civilians were elderly people who had disembarked a bus ahead of a visit to an IDF base nearby. 

Israeli emergency responders clean the site after a driver rammed his truck into a crowd of people at a bus stop in Ramat Hasharon, north of Tel Aviv on October 27, 2024

Israeli police inspect the body of the truck driver at the site of a ramming attack in Ramat Hasharon, north of Tel Aviv on October 27, 2024

Minister of National Security of Israel, Itamar Ben Gvir looks on at the scene of a truck ramming outside the Glilot military base near Tel Aviv, Israel, 27 October 2024

At least six people were seriously injured in the crash 

Israeli police are still investigating the incident 

Preliminary police findings showed the driver also hit a bus that had stopped at the same location to drop off passengers, the police said in a statement. 

Earlier on Sunday the Magen David Adom emergency service said the incident occurred at Aharon Yariv Boulevard in Ramat HaSharon, north of the commercial hub Tel Aviv.

Of those injured, at least 16 people had been transported to nearby hospitals, MDA said in a statement.

Officers and ambulances rushed to the scene, where Israeli television channels showed police cordoning off the area as medics helped the injured and a helicopter hovered above.

Highway 5 was closed to traffic, with Israeli cops asking drivers to use alternative routes and to avoid the area.  

Politicians, including Israel’s minister for national security Itamar Ben-Gvir, have already flocked to the scene of the incident.  

The incident comes as Israel holds ceremonies to mark the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Hamas attack on October 7 last year that sparked the ongoing wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

Dozens were rushed to hospital to be treated for their injuries

The incident is being treated as a terror attack 

Cops are working to ascertain the identity of the attacker

It also comes as Israeli strikes on northern Gaza have killed at least 22 people, mostly women and children, Palestinian officials said Sunday, as the Israeli offensive in the hard-hit and isolated north entered a third week and aid groups described a humanitarian catastrophe. 

Iran’s supreme leader, meanwhile, said Israeli strikes on the country over the weekend ‘should not be exaggerated nor downplayed,’ while stopping short of calling for retaliation, suggesting Iran is carefully weighing its response to the attack.

On Saturday, Israeli warplanes attacked military targets in Iran in response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack earlier this month.

The exchange of fire has raised fears of an all-out regional war pitting Israel and the United States against Iran and its militant proxies, which include Hamas and the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, where Israel launched a ground invasion earlier this month after nearly a year of lower-level conflict.

A view of the area as medical teams responding to dozens of people at the scene after a truck crashed into a bus stop, north of Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 27, 2024

An Israeli police officer inspects inside the cabin of a truck that rammed into a bus stop near the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, wounding dozens of people, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service near Tel Aviv, Israel

The Israeli military said Sunday that four soldiers, including a military rabbi, have been killed in fighting in southern Lebanon, without providing details about the circumstances. It said five other personnel were severely wounded.

Netanyahu says strikes on Iran achieved Israel’s goals

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the strikes ‘severely harmed’ Iran and achieved all of Israel’s goals.

‘The air force struck throughout Iran. We severely harmed Iran’s defense capabilities and its ability to produce missiles that are aimed toward us,’ Netanyahu said in his first public comments on the strikes.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s 85-year-old supreme leader, said ‘it is up to the authorities to determine how to convey the power and will of the Iranian people to the Israeli regime and to take actions that serve the interests of this nation and country.’

Khamenei would make any final decision on how Iran responds.

More to follow.