JERUSALEM, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- A Palestinian teen was killed as a car was rammed into an Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank on Monday, injuring a security guard, the defense ministry of Israel said in a statement.
The Israeli ministry said the incident at the Te'enim Checkpoint outside Tulkarem city in the northern West Bank was "a terror attack."
The guard was taken to the Sheba Hospital in central Israel in a moderate condition, and no one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz wrote on Twitter that he ordered to raise the alert level for all Israeli checkpoints across the West Bank and commended the guards "for the swift action."
The Palestinian side confirmed the death of the 16-year-old boy on Monday. Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) welcomed the attack in a press statement, calling it "a natural response to the daily and endless Israeli violations against the Palestinians and their properties."
The car-ramming attack came one day after two Israeli border police officers shot dead a Palestinian assailant after he stabbed an Israeli civilian near the Old City in East Jerusalem.
The tension between Israel and Palestine has intensified recently after the Israeli side pushed ahead with the settlement expansion plan in the disputed area.
Israeli settlement is the thorniest issue in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and one of the main reasons for the disruption of the last round of direct peace negotiations between the two sides in 2014.
According to Israeli and Palestinian estimates, about 650,000 Israeli settlers live in 164 settlements and 124 outposts in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Enditem