Israeli security forces work at the scene of the car-ramming attack in Acre, Israel, on March 4, 2018. Israel's police said Sunday that the car ramming accident on Sunday was a "terror attack" carried out by an Arab citizen of Israel, which wounded three Israeli troops. (Xinhua/JINI)
JERUSALEM, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Israel's police said Sunday that the car ramming accident on Sunday was a "terror attack" carried out by an Arab citizen of Israel, which wounded three Israeli troops.
The police identified the driver as a resident of Shfar'am, an Arab city in Israel's northern coast.
A police statement said that following an assessment of the findings from the scene and CCTV video footages, the incident "appears to be a terror attack with a nationalistic background."
The driver attempted to run over security officers "in several different scenes" in the northern city of Acre, targeting "policemen and soldiers on uniforms," the statement read.
The investigation, which was launched right after the incident, is still ongoing, the police said.
In the incident, near the train station of Acre, the driver rammed his jeep at a Border Police officer before he drove away, stirring his vehicle to a sidewalk, where he hit two soldiers.
The troops sustained light injuries and were taken to hospital, a spokesperson with the medical emergency service said.
The driver was shot by one of the troops and was taken to hospital in a moderate-to-severe condition, the spokesperson added.
A relative of the driver told the Hebrew-language Ynet news site that he "found it hard to believe that this was a nationalistic incident."
He added the incident might have been a result of a 1,000-shekel (about 290 U.S. dollars) fine parking report that the driver received just before the incident and infuriated him. "He never thought of hurting people, he has no such thoughts," said the relative.
Israeli Arabs are Palestinians who stayed put during the 1948 Israel's Independence War. They often complain lack of job opportunities, racism, and are discriminated against in health, transportation, and education services.
They make up about 20 percent of the Israeli population and are rarely involved in attacks.
