Driver in West Bank hit-and-run identified as Jewish settler

The driver of a vehicle that hit four Palestinian pedestrians in a hit-and-run Tuesday has been identified. A Jewish resident of the West Bank settlement of Ginot Shomron called the police Tuesday night and confessed to driving the car.

The pedestrians were hurt Tuesday evening when a car plowed into a group walking by the side of Road 55 near the entrance to the West Bank village of Nabi Elias, east of Qalqilya.

The vehicle continued traveling east on Road 55 toward the village of Azun, witnesses said. According to police, the driver later explained he was scared to stop outside the Palestinian village.

Police said from the start that they were treating the incident as a hit-and-run offense. Initial reports speculated the incident may have been a retaliatory attack by Jews over a spate of recent deadly Palestinian car-ramming terror attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank, but investigators said no evidence has yet been found that the accident was a deliberate attack.

Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances evacuated the wounded, who were in light to moderate condition, to a local hospital.