IDF: Soldier moderately hurt in car-ramming attack in West Bank’s Huwara
Military says forces hunting for assailant who is thought to have fled toward Nablus, after troops open fire at vehicle; serviceman taken to hospital in Petah Tikva
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
An Israeli soldier was moderately wounded in a car-ramming attack in the northern West Bank town of Huwara on Sunday evening, the military and medics said.
The Israel Defense Forces said the soldier was conducting “routine activity” in the Huwara area when a vehicle accelerated toward him and rammed into him.
Another soldier opened fire at the vehicle which fled the area, apparently toward the city of Nablus, just north of Huwara.
The soldier was taken to Beilinson Hospital in the central Israeli city of Petah Tikvah, where he was listed in moderate condition. The IDF said that the soldier’s family has been notified of his injury.
The IDF said that troops launched a manhunt for the assailant.
Huwara has long been a flashpoint in the West Bank, as it is just about the only Palestinian town that Israelis regularly travel through in order to reach settlements. There are plans to build a bypass road for settlers to avoid having to travel through the town, but the construction work has been stalled.
There have been several shooting attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers in the town in recent months, including the killing of two brothers in February. Earlier this month, a Palestinian woman stabbed a soldier in Huwara, before being shot dead.
Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have been high for the past year, with the Israeli military conducting near-nightly raids in the West Bank, in the wake of a series of deadly Palestinian terror attacks.
Since the beginning of the year, Palestinian attacks in Israel and the West Bank have killed 19 people and left several more seriously hurt. At least 108 West Bank Palestinians have been killed during that span, most of them while carrying out attacks or during clashes with security forces, but some were uninvolved civilians and others were killed under circumstances that are being investigated.
