Son of Israel’s US envoy, a soldier, seriously hurt in car-ramming attack in West Bank; assailant shot dead

An Israel Defense Forces reservist soldier, the son of Israel’s Ambassador to the US Yehiel Leiter, was seriously injured in a car-ramming attack at a checkpoint in the central West Bank on Wednesday.

The assailant accelerated toward a police cruiser stationed at the “Bell” checkpoint — where Routes 4436 and 4437 from Beit Ur and Ramallah hit the major Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway Route 443 — running over Neria Leiter, who was operating alongside a cop, the military and police said.

The IDF said troops operating at the scene shot dead the assailant who carried out the ramming. He was identified by Israeli security officials as Mahmoud Mohammad Sliman, 29, from the nearby village of Beit Ur al-Tahta.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said its medics treated the soldier, who was unconscious after he was hit.

Leiter was taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem in serious condition, medical officials said.

Leiter’s eldest brother, Maj. (res.) Moshe Yedidya Leiter, a father of six who was training to become a doctor, was killed alongside three other reservists in northern Gaza in November 2023.

In a post on X, Ambassador Leiter thanked the medical team at Shaare Zedek Medical Center, “who are now fighting for the life” of his son.

“I believe in the power of prayer, and I believe that when the people of Israel unite, miracles happen. Neria needs a miracle,” he said.

I am grateful to the IDF, to the medical team at Shaare Zedek who are now fighting to save the life of Neria Dov ben Chana, and for the prayers of the people of Israel.

I believe in the power of prayer, and I believe that when the people of Israel unite, miracles happen. Neria…

— Ambassador Yechiel (Michael) Leiter (@yechielleiter) September 23, 2026

“Neria continued to serve in the reserves after losing his older brother, Moshe Yedidya Leiter, of blessed memory, and has served hundreds of days in the reserves on various fronts since October 7. Palestinian terrorism seeks to uproot the people of Israel from their land. They choose death — we choose life,” he wrote.

The ramming came days after father of six Netanel Shukrun was shot and killed in a terror attack at a natural spring near the West Bank settlement of Neve Tzuf, also known as Halamish.

Violence in the West Bank has soared since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war.

Sixty-seven civilians and Israeli security personnel have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the Israeli security forces were killed in clashes during raids in Palestinian cities in the West Bank.

During the same period, more than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers, according to the PA health ministry. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.

The same period has also seen a major surge in attacks by settler extremists on Palestinians and their property across the West Bank. The IDF recorded 867 incidents of nationalistic crime and settler violence in 2025. The total for 2024 was 682 incidents.

In a rare step, the headquarters of the military’s 98th Division will take responsibility for some sections of the West Bank amid the heightened tensions, the military said Wednesday.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir ordered the 98th Division’s headquarters to command the Judea and Etzion regional brigades, tasked with the southern portion of the West Bank, following a fresh assessment, the military said.

The two regional brigades are normally under the responsibility of the Judea and Samaria Division. The move means that the headquarters of the 98th Division will take responsibility for the two brigades to alleviate pressure from the Judea and Samaria Division. The 98th Division is not deploying its organic units in the West Bank as part of the move.

“Activating the division headquarters in the area is part of strengthening command and control, in order to enhance defensive and offensive capabilities” in the West Bank, the army said, adding that it comes against the backdrop of recent terror attacks and an effort to “enhance security during this tense period.”

Two Palestinians charged for allegedly planning to kill Ben Gvir

Separately, military prosecutors indicted two Palestinians from the Nablus area in the northern West Bank for allegedly planning to carry out “a series of terror attacks” against Israeli civilians and troops, including abducting soldiers and assassinating National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, police and the Shin Bet said in a joint statement on Wednesday.

The suspects allegedly began “advancing ‘military’ activity” in late 2023, including recruiting other operatives, holding shooting training, discussing attack plans and stocking up on assault rifles and ammunition, the statement said.

The suspects made up their minds to kill Ben Gvir in 2024, the statement added.

After they saw a video of Ben Gvir arriving at the scene of a terror attack, one of the suspects allegedly suggested that the pair carry out their own attack to lure Ben Gvir to the scene and kill him.

The same suspect later “suggested using an explosive drone for the assassination, and even tried buying drone parts from China” to that end, the statement said.

In tandem, the suspects also allegedly planned to carry out car-bomb and drone attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers, and also plotted mass shootings and the abduction of a soldier.

The statement did not identify the suspects or specify when they were arrested. It said their detention has been extended periodically until the indictment and that they remain in custody until the end of the legal proceedings.

Ben Gvir said in his own statement that the assassination plot in the indictment is the 11th against him.

Additionally, in a rare occurrence, Israeli commandos apprehended a senior member of the Palestinian Authority’s security services during a raid in the West Bank overnight, police confirmed on Wednesday.

Palestinian media reported earlier that Israeli forces arrested Majdi Amer, a colonel in the Palestinian Authority’s Preventive Security Service, in the village of Kafr Qallil, south of Nablus.

In a statement, police said that undercover Border Police officers raided Kafr Qallil overnight and apprehended a “wanted operative.”

مصادر محلية: قوات الاحـ.tـلال تعتقل "مجدي عامر" عقب محاصرة منزله خلال اقتحام قرية كفر قليل شرق نابلس. pic.twitter.com/2vwQdC6kfm

— فلسطين بوست (@PalpostN) September 23, 2026

The wanted man is suspected of advancing terror activities, police said.

“The undercover forces entered the village in disguise and reached the compound where the wanted man was residing,” police said.

The officers surrounded the building and carried out a tactic known as “pressure cooker,” which involves escalating the volume of fire against a building to flush suspects out.

The wanted man eventually exited the building and “surrendered himself to the troops,” according to the police.

Rights group: 24 residential buildings razed in Palestinian hamlet

Israeli security forces on Wednesday carried out demolitions in the West Bank Palestinian hamlet of Jinba in the Masafer Yatta region in the south of the territory, the B’Tselem human rights group said.

The group said that 24 residential buildings were destroyed in Jinba by the Civil Administration, an agency of the Defense Ministry in charge of enforcement against illegal structures in the West Bank, leaving some 180 people, including about 85 children, homeless.

The administration also destroyed 15 agricultural buildings, 16 solar panels, 14 water tanks, and arrested one of the hamlet’s residents, the group said.

Security forces, Civil Administration, demolishing buildings in Palestinian hamlet of Jinba in South Hebron Hills/Masafer Yatta region right now. 19 buildings demolished so far according to B'Tselem… pic.twitter.com/jq4VAjmgJD

— Jeremy Sharon (@jeremysharon) September 23, 2026

The Civil Administration acknowledged the demolitions in Jinba, saying that “enforcement was carried out against illegal building components,” in the region.

It also stated that “enforcement action” had been carried out against illegal water drilling in Area A of the West Bank, in the Jordan Valley region.

It was not immediately clear what action the Civil Administration had taken against such illegal water drilling, and a spokesperson for the agency did not respond to a request for comment.

The demolitions in Jinba are the third such operation in the last three weeks.

On September 2, the Civil Administration demolished the entire hamlet of Khirbet a-Taban, also in Masafer Yatta, including all 12 homes and almost all other buildings. The dwelling had been home to 12 families, numbering some 70 people.

And on September 8, the Civil Administration demolished five homes belonging to four families numbering 32 people in Khirbet al-Fakhit, less than two kilometers from Khirbet a-Taban, as well as sheep pens, external toilets, water tanks, solar panels, water cisterns and chicken coops.

The homes are in an area that the IDF declared a firing zone in the 1980s, setting off a decades-long legal battle over the fate of several hamlets that fell within the wide borders of the zone.

In May 2022, the High Court of Justice upheld the right of the military to establish the firing zone, and determined that the residents had not successfully proved they had lived in the villages as permanent residents before the army declared the area a training zone. This gave the army the green light to demolish the villages, although demolitions have taken place only sporadically since then.

The land’s Palestinian inhabitants claim that they had been living in the area long before the IDF designation of the area as training grounds. Over the years, the Palestinians have erected a number of permanent buildings on the site and have established eight small villages — Majaz, Tabban, Sfai, Fakheit, Halaweh, Mirkez, Jinba, and Kharuba.

The villagers claim that they worked the land for many years before 1967, when Israel captured the West Bank from Jordanian forces. The state contends that the area was uninhabited prior to the 1980 declaration.

Firing Zone 918 is located entirely within Area C, under full Israeli control, and covers about 7,500 acres of land, The New York Times reported in July.

According to a New York Times report in late July, Palestinian advocates claim the demolitions are part of a government drive to tighten Israel’s grip on Area C, which is home to 350,000 Israelis and about 50,000 Palestinians and comprises 61% of the West Bank.

The Civil Administration stated on Wednesday that “enforcement action” had also been carried out against illegal water drilling in Area A of the West Bank, in the Jordan Valley region.

It was not immediately clear what action the Civil Administration had taken against such illegal water drilling, and a spokesperson for the agency did not respond to a request for comment.

Until this year, the Civil Administration has only carried out enforcement action in Area C, since the Palestinian Authority is supposed to have full civilian control in Areas A and B of the West Bank.

But in February this year, the security cabinet decided to expand oversight and enforcement activities into areas A and B with regard to water violations, damage to archaeological sites, and environmental hazards.

The Palestinian Authority condemned the steps at the time as further efforts by Israel to annex the West Bank.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.