IDF soldier hurt in attack at West Bank checkpoint

An Israel Defense Forces soldier was lightly wounded Saturday morning in a knife attack by a Palestinian at the Ofer checkpoint in the West Bank, north of Jerusalem, Channel 10 reported. The attacker was shot and wounded at the scene, the report said.

The IDF said that the soldier was stabbed at a checkpoint on Route 443 — a central highway connecting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, which partially runs through the West Bank.

An initial investigation showed that a Palestinian reached the checkpoint from west of the Beit Horon settlement, and attacked the soldier, Channel 10 reported.

The soldier was taken by military vehicle to hospital.

The Palestinian attacker was reported to have sustained light wounds. He was questioned at the scene of the attack, the IDF said.

Israel’s Ynet news website later named the assailant as Nasim Yusef Gomhur, from the village of Beit ‘Anan in the Ramallah area. He reportedly told Israeli security officials that he had decided to carry out the attack on the soldier after his father hit him during an argument.

The incident is the latest in a string of attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians in the West Bank. Last week, three soldiers were wounded when a Palestinian plowed his car into them while they were on a foot patrol in the northern West Bank.

Days later, an Israeli civilian was stabbed and moderately wounded in an attack by a group of Palestinians at a gas station on Route 443.

And on Friday evening, a gas station was set alight on Route 60, near the West Bank settlement of Eli, by unknown assailants who fled the scene.