Two Israelis killed in West Bank car crash

Two Israelis were killed in a car accident Tuesday afternoon outside a West Bank settlement south of Jerusalem.

A Magen David Adom spokesperson said the collision between a truck and a private vehicle instantly killed a couple as they drove near the Jewish settlement of Elazar on Route 60, a main West Bank artery.

The driver of the truck, an East Jerusalem man, was lightly injured. He was taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.

Police were investigating the cause of the fatal crash.

“It was a devastating accident,” said Zaki Yahav, a paramedic responding to the scene. “It was an awful scene, the car was completely crushed with the driver and the man next to her trapped inside.”

“Their injuries were severe. We had to declare them both dead at the scene,” he said.

In a separate incident on Tuesday, at least 29 people were injured in a bus accident in Jerusalem’s Ramat Sharet neighborhood.

Paramedics evacuated 12 injured passengers to the city’s Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem, and 14 to Shaare Zedek Hospital. Three were taken to Hadassa Hospital Mount Scopus.

MDA said that aside from one passenger who sustained moderate injures, the majority of passengers were lightly wounded in the crash.

Details of the crash were not immediately clear.