IDF soldier critically injured by stone slab dropped on him in West Bank
Serviceman from elite Duvdevan unit hit in head with chunk of marble during arrest operation in Palestinian refugee camp
Michael Bachner is a news editor at The Times of Israel
An IDF soldier from an elite unit was critically wounded early Thursday morning when a stone block was dropped on him at a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank, the military said.
The piece of marble was thrown from a third-story rooftop at a group of troops who were conducting an arrest raid in the al-Am’ari refugee camp near Ramallah, the army said.
The block hit the soldier in the head, and he was taken to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in critical condition.
The soldier served in the elite Duvdevan Unit, which operates extensively in the West Bank.
According to the army’s initial investigation, he was wearing a helmet at the time of the attack.
The assailant was not arrested.
The military said it launched an investigation into the incident and that additional details were still being established.
The assailant was not shot, because the IDF did not identify him, it said.
The military cleared the incident for publication several hours after it occurred, to notify the soldier’s family first.
Also Thursday morning, a Palestinian man attacked Israeli security forces with live pistol fire in the West Bank, south of Jerusalem, without causing injuries. He was arrested after soldiers and officers chased him down, police said.
The shooter, identified as a 20-year-old resident of the village of Beit Sahur, near Bethlehem, fired the pistol from the area of the nearby Palestinian town of Al-Khader, the police statement said.
The Palestinian was lightly injured by the pursuing police car and received medical treatment at the scene, police said. None of the Israeli troops was hurt.
A pocket knife was discovered in the man’s possessions, and an FN pistol — which police said was probably the gun he used to attack the border guards — was found nearby.
Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.
