A Palestinian driver was shot and killed Tuesday morning by IDF troops after ramming his car into a bus stop near in central Samaria, near the city of Ariel.

The Palestinian suspect, who was driving a stolen vehicle, was being pursued down a nearby highway by IDF troops.

“During [the chase], the driver crashed head-on into the bus stop, got out of the car and started to flee,” the IDF said.

Soldiers at the scene had assumed that the crash was an attempted terror attack and opened fire, hitting the driver as he ran. The driver was treated by medics at the scene but eventually succumbed to his wounds and died. It is unclear whether any civilians were at the bus-stop at the time of the incident.

The IDF has launched an investigation into the incident, although investigators initially considered the ramming to have been criminal in nature and not a “nationalist” terror attack. Moreover, no weapons were found in the car.

In February, Rabbi Itamar Ben Gal, a father of four from the nearby town of Har Bracha, was stabbed to death while standing at a bus-stop outside the city of Ariel. The Palestinian terrorist escaped but was captured six weeks later.