The suspect was “neutralised” by a civilian first-responder, police said. A medic who examined him at the scene told Israel’s Kan radio that he had been shot dead.

Israel has been on alert for Palestinian attacks a day after launching a major military operation in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.

Khaled Al-Batsh, a senior official from the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad movement praised the attack as “an initial and natural response of the resistance towards what is happening in Jenin” although he stopped short of claiming responsibility.

Video circulated online showed a pick-up truck that had mounted a pavement near a mall and jutted into a bicycle path.

A spokesperson for the Magen David Adom ambulance service said some of those injured had knife wounds.

(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by James Mackenzie)