A Palestinian turned himself in to Israeli authorities Thursday to say he was responsible for one of two incidents in which vehicles smashed into Israelis a day earlier, the Israeli military said.
Though the motives weren't immediately clear, the incidents were the latest in a series of vehicles striking pedestrians in Israel and the West Bank as the long-taut tensions between Israelis and Palestinians worsened in recent months, agitated in part by killings and a seven-week Israeli-Gaza conflict earlier this year.
They also came amid days of outrage and clashes in Jerusalem over the status of one of the holiest sites in Judaism and Islam -- the Temple Mount, known by Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary.
The man who surrendered Thursday said he was the driver who rammed into an Israeli military post Wednesday near Al-Aroub in the West Bank, injuring three Israeli soldiers, the Israeli military said. The driver fled after the incident.
The injured soldiers were taken to Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital. All three are in moderate condition, said Dr. Asher Salmon, the hospital's deputy head. Earlier, Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri said one was in critical condition.
Earlier Wednesday, a Palestinian man drove a van into pedestrians at a rail station in eastern Jerusalem, killing an Israeli border police officer and injuring 13 other people, police said.
Police shot and killed that driver, identified by Israeli authorities as a member of the Islamist Hamas movement, Samri said.
News of the driver's killing ignited fierce clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian youths at the entrance of an eastern Jerusalem Palestinian refugee camp where the suspect lived, according to witnesses.
No motive was immediately released, but Hamas supported the hitting of the Jerusalem pedestrians in a text message to the news media: "Hamas blesses the action. What is happening in Jerusalem is pushing us to prepare for war."
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld called the incident "a terrorist attack."
Wednesday's developments came on the heels of two hit-and-run incidents that happened in Jerusalem and the West Bank last month.
On October 22, a Palestinian man rammed his car into commuters waiting at a light rail stop in Jerusalem, killing a baby and wounding several other people, Israeli police said.
Palestinian state news reported that a 5-year-old girl died on October 19 after an Israeli settler deliberately ran over her as she returned home from kindergarten near a village to the north of Ramallah in the West Bank.
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