Suspected car-ramming attack wounds Israeli soldiers: army

A suspected Palestinian car-ramming attack in the occupied West Bank has wounded five Israeli soldiers and the alleged assailant has been arrested, the Israeli army said Sunday. The troops were stationed on a roadside near the Palestinian town of Hizma as part of "operational activity" on Saturday night when the driver of a car rammed his vehicle into them, the army said.

Three soldiers were moderately injured and two hurt lightly in the incident near the town, which is located close to a checkpoint dividing the West Bank from Jerusalem, it said in a statement. Soldiers later arrested the driver and his father at a checkpoint, it added.

It said an initial inquiry "suggests that the incident was a car-ramming attack" and not an accident. Israeli army raids in the West Bank regularly set off tensions with Palestinian residents.

Palestinians have carried out sporadic car-ramming, knife and gun attacks against Israeli soldiers in the territory occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War.