A ramming attack at a bus stop in northern Israel on Thursday injured seven people, one of them critically, Israeli medics said.

Israeli police said the suspected attacker had nationalistic motivations and was a Palestinian from Jenin in the north of the Israeli-occupied West Bank who was married to an Israeli citizen.

"Preliminary findings indicate that he deliberately targeted civilians" waiting at a bus stop at Karkur Junction, a statement from the Israeli police said.

Israeli-Palestinian violence has spiked in the West Bank. Israel sent tanks into the northern West Bank for the first time in over 20 years on Sunday and ordered the military to prepare for an extended stay to fight Palestinian militant groups in the area's refugee camps.

At least 40,000 Palestinians have left their homes in Jenin and nearby Tulkarm since Israel began its operation last month, after reaching a ceasefire agreement with Hamas in Gaza following 15 months of war. (Reporting by Emily Rose; editing by Mark Heinrich)