Palestinian trucker shot dead after killing Israeli soldier in ramming attack

A Palestinian truck driver killed an Israeli soldier in a ramming attack on a checkpoint on the boundary with the occupied West Bank on Thursday, and was shot dead during an ensuing pursuit, Israeli police and medical officials said.

The military said only that three of its troops were injured in the incident on the Israeli side of Maccabim checkpoint, on a major road. Medical officials said one of them had died.

Police initially said the driver, a 41-year-old who had a permit to work in Israel, was shot and wounded outside a nearby Palestinian village, Nilin.

He was later pronounced dead, police said, describing the incident as a terrorist attack.

The Islamist militant group Hamas, which has stepped up attacks in the West Bank in a challenge to Israel and the internationally backed Palestinian Authority, described the incident as an “heroic operation” but did not claim credit.

The West Bank, among areas where Palestinians seek statehood, has seen a surge of violence in recent months.