KFAR YONA, Israel, July 24, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Eight people were taken to hospital after a car ploughed into a bus stop in central Israel on Thursday in a suspected car-ramming attack, emergency services said.

Israel's Magen David Adom (MDA) first responders said they received a report at 9:25 am (0625 GMT) that a vehicle crashed into a bus stop near Kfar Yona.

A man and woman in their 20s were said to be in a "moderate condition, with injuries to the chest and limbs", the MDA said.

Three others were in a "mild-moderate condition, with injuries to the head and limbs", it added. Three people were described as having "mild" injuries.

"The vehicle hit several people and fled the scene," police spokesman Aryeh Doron said.

The car was abandoned and later recovered and the driver is being hunted using helicopters, motorbikes and a specialist dog unit, police added.

The site of the crash was cordoned off as forensic investigators combed the scene, an AFP photographer said.

There has been a spate of violence in Israel and the occupied West Bank since the start of the war against Hamas in Gaza, triggered by the militants' attack on October 7, 2023.

A teenager died in March this year when police said a car driven by a Palestinian man deliberately ploughed into civilians at a bus stop in northern Israel.

At least 32 people, including soldiers, have died in attacks in Israel by Palestinians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

In the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, at least 958 Palestinians, including many fighters but also civilians, have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to Palestinian Authority figures.

At the same time, at least 36 Israelis, including civilians and soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations, Israeli figures showed.