Israel Police Say Foil Palestinian Truck-Ramming
Israeli police said Friday they arrested a Palestinian from the occupied West Bank who stole a lorry in Israel and planned to use it to run down soldiers.
A police statement said the driver was arrested on Thursday after a chase through central Israel in which his vehicle hit a civilian car and a police cruiser.
It said a magistrates court in Petah Tikvah, near Tel Aviv, remanded him in custody on Friday for a further six days.
"During interrogation, the suspect, 39, from Ramallah, confessed to stealing the lorry in order to carry out a ramming attack against soldiers in the country's central region," the statement said.
In January, a Palestinian from Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem killed four soldiers and injured 15 in a truck-ramming attack before being shot dead.
A wave of unrest that erupted in October 2015 has claimed the lives of at least 295 Palestinians or Arab Israelis, 51 Israelis, two Americans, two Jordanians, an Eritrean, a Sudanese and a Briton, according to an AFP toll.
The violence, however, has largely subsided in recent months.
Israeli authorities say most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks.
Others were shot dead in protests and clashes, while some were killed in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip.
Source: Agence France Presse
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