Amichai Attia, a 12th-grade student at the Hitzim Yeshiva, was killed late Thursday night in a ramming incident at the Village shopping complex in Hadera.
Amit is the son of Sagit and Yona, and a resident of a community in Samaria. He had arrived in Hadera with students from his school to attend a Selichot prayer event held at the Olga Yeshiva in cooperation with the Hadera Municipality.
According to initial reports, a pickup truck driven by an Arab driver struck a group of teenage pedestrians as they were returning from a Selichot event. Authorities initially suspected that the ramming may have been deliberate, and Shin Bet personnel also arrived at the scene to examine the circumstances.
Police later claimed that their preliminary investigation indicated a different sequence of events, according to which the incident began with a confrontation between the parties. During the confrontation, Attia was struck by the vehicle, and shots were subsequently fired at the driver, who fled the scene.
However, Attia's friends said that the truck driver, a resident of Kafr Manda, was speeding and hit him.
Footage of the scene shows that in the moments just prior to the ramming, hundreds of youth were attending a Selichot event held at the compound's parking lot. The truck driver can be seen at the scene removing merchandise from his truck, and later clashing with the teens.
The footage also shows the truck driver escaping the scene by driving backwards, as a number of teens chase after him. As he drove, he it Amichai. Though police are currently claiming that the incident was criminal in nature and not a terror attack, Attia's friends emphasized that he himself was not involved in the conflict that occurred prior to the ramming.
Magen David Adom (MDA) teams treated Attia and performed prolonged resuscitation efforts. He was evacuated to Hillel Yaffe Medical Center while undergoing resuscitation, but the hospital staff were forced to declare his death.
The driver was lightly wounded and evacuated for medical treatment.
Large police forces from the Hadera station arrived at the scene, collected evidence and opened an investigation into the circumstances. Following an assessment, it was decided to transfer the investigation to the Menashe Central Unit.
Police stressed that based on the circumstances and motives currently under investigation, the incident is believed to have been criminal in nature, with no suspicion at this stage that it was a terrorist attack.
MDA paramedic Yiska Ben Nun and emergency medical technicians Victor Goltz and Yonatan Yankelowitz said: "When we arrived at the scene, we were led to the injured person, who was lying in the parking lot of a shopping center after being struck by a vehicle. He was unconscious, without a pulse and not breathing, and was suffering from a severe head injury."
"We immediately began advanced resuscitation efforts and evacuated him in an MDA intensive care ambulance to the hospital, in critical condition and while undergoing resuscitation."