5 Palestinians killed in West Bank car accident

Five people were killed on Wednesday when an Israeli truck collided with a van carrying Palestinian workers outside the Shaked settlement in the northern West Bank.

Magen David Adom paramedics along with an IDF medical force arrived at the scene to provide treatment for 10 victims — 9 Palestinian workers along with the Israeli driver whose truck collided with their van.

Video footage of the incident shows the truck veering into the lane of the Palestinian van for no apparent reason, colliding with the vehicle at full speed.

Five of the workers, in their 40s, were in critical condition when the forces arrived and were pronounced dead at the scene shortly after, medics said.

The remaining Palestinian workers, one in critical condition and three in moderate condition, were evacuated by an IDF helicopter to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa. The Israeli truck driver was lightly hurt and he was transferred to Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera, an MDA statement said.

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The narrow roads of the West Bank have been prone to several lethal accidents already this summer. Late last month, seven people were killed when an armored Israeli bus, a Palestinian minibus and a Palestinian car all collided on Route 60 south of the settlement of Ofra.

Israeli buses that travel in the West Bank are often reinforced with strengthened windows and side paneling as protection against rocks and bullets. The protection makes the buses sturdier and heavier.

That crash was the second deadly incident on the same stretch of road in under a week.

Six days earlier, three people were killed and five wounded in a deadly car accident between an Israeli vehicle and a Palestinian vehicle, also on Route 60, heading north toward the settlement of Beit El.