A 2-year-old Israeli infant is in critical condition and her mother and two sisters sustained moderate injuries on Thursday evening, in a West Bank traffic accident that police say was caused by stones thrown by Palestinians at passing vehicles.

The accident happened on Route 5 near Ariel at around 6:30 P.M.

Police and medical crews rushed to the scene and evacuated the injured to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikvah, where surgeons are currently laboring to save the infant's life, Channel 10 reports.

According to eyewitness reports, the car in which the family was traveling crashed into the truck in front of it. The truck driver said he braked when a rock hit his vehicle.

Prior to the collision, Palestinians had been throwing rocks at other passing vehicles, hitting two buses and a driver and two passengers were injured.

Military forces are currently scanning the area for the perpetrators.

The head of the Samaria Regional Council, Gershon Masika, responded to the attack by saying that "the warped policy of not defining stone-throwing as terrorism creates a situation of utter anarchy. In the last few months the number of stone-throwing incidents has increased yet the government refuses to respond."

Later on, glass shattered by stone-throwing lightly injured a passenger of a bus in Jerusalem.

Thursday's incidents come after two weeks of heightened tensions across the West Bank. Earlier this week, a Palestinian man was shot dead by IDF troops in the Al-Fawwar refugee camp. Following the funeral of Mahmoud Titi, 25, there were further clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian protesters.

Open gallery view Car destroyed by traffic accident in the West Bank on March 14. Credit: Oren Ziv