A preliminary police probe into a reported shooting and car-ramming attack near Tel Aviv on Thursday confirmed that no shots were fired and that it was a traffic accident between a tractor and another vehicle.
The driver was being questioned at the scene. There were no casualties in the incident.
According to the initial reports, a suspect drove a tractor into several vehicles at the Glilot Interchange, one of the busiest in Israel, where Route 5 meets the Ayalon Highway and Route 2.
On Tuesday, Palestinian terrorists in Samaria opened fire on the northern Israeli farming kibbutz of Meirav, located inside the country’s pre-1967 lines.
There were no injuries in the attack, which took place as school buses were returning children to the community, but one home sustained damage.
The shots were reportedly fired from the Palestinian Arab village of Jalbun, about 220 to 330 yards from the kibbutz.
In November, two Arabs from Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel were arrested near a train station in Tel Aviv on suspicion of planning to carry out a stabbing attack.
The would-be terrorists, both 14 years old, took a bus to Tel Aviv to attack IDF soldiers near the city’s Savidor Central railway station.
Police flagged their suspicious behavior and found knives on their persons during a search.
They were indicted on suspicion of attempted murder on nationalistic grounds.
In September, a Palestinian from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip was arrested at Savidor while in possession of a 30-centimeter-long (11.8-inch) butcher’s knife.
The 35-year-old resident of Jabalia had a permit to work in Israel, according to police.
A day later, another Gaza resident was arrested at the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station in the city’s south.
The 60-year-old suspect was detained after security guards identified two knives hidden in his bag using scanners at the entrance to the facility.
The same day, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) said Hamas was behind the attempt earlier in September to smuggle explosives from Gaza into Israel in a shipment of clothing.
The smuggling attempt was made at the Kerem Shalom Crossing at the southeastern corner of the Gaza Strip, near the Egyptian border.
This is a developing story.
