A WOMAN HAS been killed and at least 13 people injured in a suspected car ramming in central Israel today, medics said, as police arrested two Palestinians over the reported attack.

Police said the two suspects stole vehicles and ran over a number of citizens in different areas in the city of Raanana north of Tel Aviv.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that the person who died was a 79-year-old Israeli woman. Haaretz also reports that the suspected attack involved stabbings. 

Medics from the Magen David Adom emergency service said of the 13 people who were wounded, two were seriously hurt, with the others suffering less serious injuries.

Hospitals in the area said they included nine children, one of whom was seriously hurt.

Meir hospital near Raanana confirmed that one woman had died.

“A wounded woman who arrived in a critical condition after having been hit by a vehicle has died of her injuries despite our efforts to save her,” the hospital said in a statement.

Haaretz reports that, according to the Israeli Police, 44-year-old Mahmoud Zidat, an illegal worker from the Palestinian town of Bani Na’im in the West Bank, was arrested after ramming civilians with three different vehicles.

The police have also detained the suspect’s nephew, 25-year-old Ahmed Zidat, who was in the car with his uncle during the attack and had later fled the scene.

A witness to the suspected attack told Haaretz that she “saw someone stab three people near the mall. (The attacker) stole a car and ran over other people.” 

With reporting from AFP