A Palestinian man drove his truck into a group of Israeli soldiers near a checkpoint between Israel and the occupied West Bank on Thursday, killing one of them, before being shot dead, Israeli officials said, quoted by AFP.

In recent months, violence related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has intensified.

According to the army, 20-year-old Ukrainian Maksym Molchanov, an Israeli soldier, was killed during the attack, and three others were injured.

A 15-year-old Palestinian and a couple in a car were also injured when the truck driver hit them while fleeing, according to Magen David Adom, Israel’s equivalent of the Red Cross.

The attacker was a 41-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank with an Israeli work permit, senior police officer Avi Beaton said at the scene.

According to an official representative of the Israeli Defense Ministry, the attack took place from the Israeli side of the Maccabim military checkpoint, located between the city of Modiin (central Israel) and the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.

The Palestinian drove his car into a group of off-duty soldiers, the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

According to Israeli police, “the driver of the truck fled but was neutralized near a checkpoint” located near the Jewish settlement of Hashmonaim, west of the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the West Bank.

Security meeting

The attacker, Daoud Abdelrazek Fayez, lived in the Deir Ammar refugee camp near Ramallah, a Palestinian security source told AFP.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed his identity and death.

The new attack came hours after the Israeli army said four soldiers were wounded, one moderately, in an explosive device detonation on a road providing pilgrims access to the Jewish holy site of Nablus in the West Bank.

In connection with the increase in the number of attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a meeting of the main security services in the evening, his office said.

On Wednesday, a 14-year-old Palestinian from East Jerusalem stabbed a civilian at a Jerusalem tram station before being shot dead by an Israeli police officer.

The same day, the Israeli military said it had “neutralized” a Palestinian who lightly wounded a soldier in a car bomb near a military position near Hebron in the southern West Bank.