IDF: Boy, 7, lightly injured in terror shooting at West Bank settlement

Child taken from Beit El to nearby hospital after bullet strikes his hand; army says shots were fired from adjacent Palestinian village

Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief

A general view of the West Bank settlement of Beit El near Ramallah, February 16, 2017.  (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
A general view of the West Bank settlement of Beit El near Ramallah, February 16, 2017. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

A 7-year-old Israeli boy was lightly injured Monday night, when shots were fired at the central West Bank settlement of Beit El from a nearby Palestinian village, the IDF said.

The young child was rushed to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center after sustaining a hand wound in the shooting.

The army said that troops were searching the surrounding area for suspects and that the shots had come from the direction of the Palestinian village of Dura al-Qaraa, north of Beit El.

Doctors at the Jerusalem hospital said the boy was fully conscious, but would likely require surgery.

Responding to the shooting, Beit El Local Council chairman Shai Alon said, “Miraculously, the injury was mild, but the incident could have ended otherwise.”

The settler leader called on the army to enter Jalazone, another village north of the settlement, “from which we have endured several shooting attacks.” He called for troops to “restore order and settle accounts there.”

The incident in Beit El took place as a barrage of rocket fire targeted southern Israel. Earlier Monday evening, the IDF said it struck dozens of terror targets in the coastal enclave in response to the rocket fired at central Israel at dawn that struck a home in the town of Mishmeret, injuring 7 people inside.

Last week, IDF soldier Gal Keidan and civilian Rabbi Ahiad Ettinger were killed in a combined stabbing and shooting terror attack in the northern West Bank.

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