Tel Aviv, Feb 27 (AP): Israeli police are investigating an episode in which a driver rammed his car into people at a highway bus stop, wounding at least eight Thursday in what authorities believed was a terror attack.

Police said they had “neutralised” the suspect, who they described as a 53-year-old Palestinian from the northern West Bank who lived in Israel and was married to an Israeli citizen.

Medical workers said the ramming injured at least eight people, two in serious condition, who they evacuated to the hospital.

Paramedic Avi Cohen described a chaotic aftermath at the scene in Pardes Hanna-Karkur, a town south of the coastal city of Haifa.

“When we arrived, they were lying on the ground. We immediately began providing medical treatment to all the injured, including stopping bleeding and bandaging wounds,” he said in a statement from Magen David Adom, Israel's emergency rescue service.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, violence by Hamas fighters against Israelis has risen, as deadly Israeli military operations have ramped up and attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank have climbed.

Hamas congratulated the attack as “a message of defiance” but did not claim responsibility.

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New Delhi (PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday will visit Meerut and flag off the Meerut Metro and Namo Bharat train at Shatabdi Nagar Namo Bharat station in the western Uttar Pradesh town.

From there, the prime minister will undertake a metro ride till Meerut South station and at around 1 pm, he will inaugurate and dedicate to the nation various development projects worth around Rs 12,930 crore in Meerut.

Modi will also address the gathering on the occasion, said a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office.

The prime minister will dedicate to the nation the entire 82 Km Delhi–Meerut Namo Bharat corridor. He will inaugurate the remaining sections of India's first Namo Bharat Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS), which include the 5 km section between Sarai Kale Khan and New Ashok Nagar in Delhi and the 21 km section between Meerut South and Modipuram in Uttar Pradesh.

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With a design speed of 180 km per hour, Namo Bharat is India's first regional rapid transit system. It will connect major urban centres such as Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, Modinagar and Meerut with Delhi at a faster pace, the statement said.

The Sarai Kale Khan, the originating station of the corridor, is one of the four Namo Bharat stations to be commissioned with this inauguration.

It is strategically located as a major multi-modal hub, seamlessly connecting Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station, Delhi Metro's pink line, Veer Haqeeqat Rai ISBT, and the ring road. The other three Namo Bharat stations, Shatabdi Nagar, Begumpul and Modipuram, being commissioned are in Meerut.

The prime minister will also inaugurate the Meerut Metro services between Meerut South and Modipuram, operating on the same infrastructure as Namo Bharat, in a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country.

The Meerut Metro will be India's fastest metro system with a maximum operational speed of around 120 kmph. The metro will cover the entire stretch in just 30 minutes, with all scheduled stoppages en route.

This seamless integration of Namo Bharat and Meerut Metro on the same infrastructure will ensure high-speed intercity travel and swift intra-city movement, setting a benchmark for integrated urban and regional transit in India. It will decongest road traffic and consequently lead to a significant reduction in vehicular carbon dioxide emissions.

These projects will provide further impetus to the prime minister's vision of transforming urban mobility and ensuring seamless, efficient, modern and sustainable public transport systems that improve ease of living for citizens, the statement said.