Two killed, five injured in West Bank multi-vehicle crash

Two people were killed and five others wounded in a deadly multi-vehicle crash in the West Bank on Friday night, officials said.

It was not immediately clear what caused the accident that involved several vehicles on Route 90, between Bet Ha’Arava junction and the Allenby Bridge border crossing to Jordan.

One of the victims, later identified as Hisham Idris, 42, an Israeli citizen from Jerusalem, was trapped in his vehicle and despite efforts to free him, medics were forced to declare him dead at the scene, the Magen David Adom rescue service said.

Firefighting officials said due to the nature of the accident and the “intensity of the crash” the rescue operation of the dead Israeli man trapped inside his car “took a long time and was complex compared to other rescues operations.”

The second victim was identified as Raed Ali al-Ajouri from the Palestinian town of Rujeib near Nablus.

MDA medics also treated the five wounded people, all Palestinians, at the scene, before they were taken by the Palestinian Red Cresent to a hospital in the West Bank in moderate conditions.

Israeli activists have lobbied for years for Route 90, a two-lane road that runs the length of Israel and traverses the West Bank, to be upgraded with more safety measures.

Eight Palestinians were killed and two others were seriously hurt in a crash on the highway last month.

And earlier on Friday, an Israeli man in his 20s was killed in a crash on Route 6 near the Lakia Junction in southern Israel.