Israel highway crash kills 8, injures 20

LEHAVIM, Israel - A crash in southern Israel on Tuesday involving a bus and a truck carrying two tractors killed eight people and wounded at least 20, police said.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said an initial investigation showed that a tractor bulging out of the truck bed hit the bus on a highway near the southern town of Lehavim. Samri said all those killed were passengers on the bus, most of them women. She said the truck driver was being questioned.

Talal al-Krenawi, mayor of the nearby town of Rahat, told Channel 2 TV that the passengers were Bedouin residents of the area returning from a trip to Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque.

Rescue helicopters hovered above the scene, where some 30 ambulances were dispatched to treat the wounded. The windows on the left side of the bus were smashed, apparently from the impact of the tractor. Other vehicles were also damaged in the accident.

Samri said police closed the road following the crash.