On 6 January 2022, a traffic collision between a truck and minibus killed eight people and injured two others in the

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. The crash occurred at Petzal Junction on Highway 90, which is considered one of Israel's most dangerous highways.After 17 more people were killed in one week, in October–November 2018, in traffic accidents on Route 90,

Events

The crash occurred on Highway 90 in the

. The stretch where the crash occurred was a winding section near the

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, or Israeli colonies, are civilian communities inhabited by Israeli citizens, overwhelmingly of Jewish ethnicity, built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community considers Israeli se ...

of Petza'el. Dashcam footage showed a truck crashing into the minibus head-on as the van made a left turn off the highway. Both vehicles were Palestinian registered. Police said the victims were teenage labourers from the town of Aqraba.

Response

President of Palestine

Mahmoud Abbas Mahmoud Abbas ( ar, مَحْمُود عَبَّاس, Maḥmūd ʿAbbās; born 15 November 1935), also known by the kunya Abu Mazen ( ar, أَبُو مَازِن, links=no, ), is the president of the State of Palestine and the Palestinian Natio ...

declared a day of mourning.

Defence Minister of Israel The Ministry of Defense ( he, מִשְׂרַד הַבִּטָּחוֹן, Misrad HaBitahon, Ministry of Security, acronym: he, משהב"ט) of the government of Israel, is the governmental department responsible for defending the State of Isra ...

Benny Gantz Benjamin Gantz ( he, בִּנְיָמִין "בֵּנִי" גַּנְץ, Transliterated: ; born 9 June 1959) is an Israeli politician and retired army general serving as the minister of Defense since 2020 and deputy prime minister of Israel sin ...

tweeted his condolences to the victims. On 7 January, the day after the accident, many Palestinians gathered in Aqraba, a Palestinian town in

Samaria Samaria (; he, שֹׁמְרוֹן, translit=Šōmrōn, ar, السامرة, translit=as-Sāmirah) is the historic and biblical name used for the central region of Palestine, bordered by Judea to the south and Galilee to the north. The first- ...

, for the joint funeral.

References

History of the West Bank West Bank bus crash West Bank bus crash History of Palestine (region) Road incidents in Asia {{StateofPalestine-stub