Woman stabbed in Israel and minister hurt in car crash: officials

A young woman was stabbed and her attacker killed near the Israeli city of Tel Aviv on Friday, while the country's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was injured in a car crash as he returned from addressing journalists at the scene, officials said.

The young woman was stabbed in the city of Ramla and taken to hospital, police and paramedics said. They said the attacker was killed, without giving details.

"We received an injured woman from gunshot and stabbing wounds in her 20s," Ortal Sheffer, a doctor at the Shamir Medical Centre (Assaf Harofe) said in a video statement shared by the hospital.

Sheffer did not specify how the woman sustained the gunshot wounds, but said she was in a stable condition.

On his way back from addressing journalists at the scene, minister Ben Gvir and three other people were injured in a spectacular car crash.

"Four additional injuries arrived as a result of the overturning of a vehicle, including Minister Itamar Ben Gvir," Sheffer said.

They "arrived in light conditions" but will remain in hospital for overnight supervision, Sheffer added.

An AFP photographer at the scene saw two damaged cars, one which had flipped over. Israeli media reported Ben Gvir had been travelling in this vehicle.

Police said the traffic department was investigating an "accident in Ramla involving two vehicles, including the vehicle of the Minister of National Security."

Ben Gvir had been holding a press conference at the scene of the stabbing, saying a civilian had killed the attacker and claiming that "weapons save lives".

"I was moved when I found out that the civilian got his gun four months ago as part of the gun reform that I advanced," Ben Gvir had said.

An AFP photographer at the scene of the stabbing saw a body bag and a large number of police officers.

Israel's Magen David Adom emergency medical service said it was alerted to the stabbing in Harduf Street at around 4:20 pm (1320 GMT).

Medics treated the "conscious female in serious condition with a stab wound to her upper body" and took her to hospital, a spokesperson said.

Several deadly knife attacks have taken place across Israel and the occupied West Bank since the war in Gaza broke out following Hamas's October 7 attack in southern Israel.

The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,356 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.