Policewoman lightly injured as car bolts during road inspection, rams into her

A policewoman was lightly injured Tuesday when a driver refused to stop his car at a checkpoint near the southern town of Carmit and instead drove off, hitting the officer.

According to police, two suspects were caught and arrested in the Bedouin town of Hura, where they live, and the car was also recovered. Hebrew media reports said the driver had been transporting West Bank residents staying illegally in Israel.

Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba said the policewoman, who was lightly injured in the incident, will be hospitalized for observation.

Police said officers became suspicious of the vehicle near the city of Beersheba. They pulled it over at the Shoket Junction for a routine inspection, but the driver suddenly drove off, hitting the officer.

A large number of officers were deployed to search for the car, including police air units. The vehicle was eventually spotted in Hura with the suspects standing next to it.

Police believe the car was attempting to escape the inspection and was not intending to intentionally harm police officers, according to Hebrew media reports.

In an unrelated incident Tuesday, also in the southern Negev region, a 15-year-old boy was seriously injured in a hit-and-run incident on Route 31, near the city of Arad.

After hitting the boy, the driver fled the scene in the car.

Magen David Adom medics said they had found the teen lying in the road, unconscious, with multiple serious injuries and without vital signs. They resuscitated the boy while rushing him to the Soroka Medical Center for treatment.

Earlier, a woman, 75, died when she was hit by a bus in the coastal southern city of Ashdod. MDA responders who arrived declared her dead at the scene.