IDF reservist seriously hurt in car crash in West Bank settlement
Injured soldier was on duty in Kiryat Arba; in separate incident, Israeli troops shoot and wound Palestinian who drove ‘suspiciously’ toward them in Nablus
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleJudah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.
A reservist soldier was seriously wounded in a car accident late Monday night in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba as he rushed to the scene of what turned out to be a false alarm, the army said.
The 28-year-old was performing his reserve service as a member of his settlement’s security team, known in Hebrew as a kitat konenut. On Monday night, the team received reports of an attempted infiltration of the settlement, which abuts the West Bank city of Hebron.
The reservist “was on his way to the scene when he was injured in a car accident,” the army said.
Ultimately, the breach was found to have been caused by “an Israeli youth who climbed over the fence,” and not a terrorist infiltration, the army said.
The injured reservist was taken to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in serious condition with a head wound shortly around midnight. He was unconscious and hooked up to a ventilator, a spokesperson for the hospital said.
Elsewhere in the West Bank, Israeli troops arrested 17 Palestinians in the early hours of Tuesday morning whom the army said were “suspected of involvement in terrorist activities, popular terrorism (throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails) and taking part in riots against Israeli citizens and security forces.”
The 17 suspects were handed over to the Shin Bet security service for questioning.
In addition, the Israel Defense Forces, Border Police and the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration provided security for a group of some 1,400 worshipers who visited the Joseph’s Tomb holy site in the West Bank city of Nablus overnight.
During the pilgrims’ visit, a “suspicious vehicle” drove quickly toward a group of IDF soldiers who were securing the area in the nearby Balata refugee camp, the army said.
#صور | إصابة شاب بعد اطلاق النار على مركبته من قِبل قوات الاحتلال على مدخل مخيم بلاطة في مدينة #نابلس ، قبل قليل . pic.twitter.com/SKlvsmuROv
— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) June 25, 2018
“In response, the troops conducted the procedure for stopping a suspect, including firing shots at the vehicle,” the IDF said in a statement.
The driver was shot in the shoulder and taken for medical treatment, according to the official Palestinian Safa news outlet.
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