Israeli man injured in West Bank stabbing attack; IDF arrests suspect after manhunt

An Israeli man was moderately hurt in a stabbing attack Sunday morning near a Palestinian village in the West Bank’s Jordan Valley, security forces said.

Following the terror attack, Israeli forces launched an hours-long manhunt, before eventually arresting a 16-year-old Palestinian suspect in the late afternoon in the village of al-Auja in the Jordan Valley.

He was handed over to the Shin Bet for questioning.

The stabbing occurred along a highway used by both Israelis and Palestinians in al-Auja, some eight kilometers (five miles) north of Jericho.

Footage of the attack showed an assailant jumping the Israeli man from behind and repeatedly stabbing him as he returned to his car after visiting a shop on the side of the West Bank highway.

According to the Magen David Adom ambulance service, the victim, a 24-year-old Israeli later identified as Elhanan Hananya, was taken to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center in moderate condition. The hospital said that he was in stable condition and fully conscious, and was being treated in the emergency department.

He suffered a broken shoulder and internal bleeding, his brothers Yosef and Shlomo Hananaya told reporters at Shaare Zedek.

According to his brothers, Hananya, a career soldier, was on his way to Tiberias to celebrate his wedding anniversary when he was attacked. The attack occurred in front of his pregnant wife, their two daughters and his father-in-law, who were in the car when he stopped in al-Auja for cigarettes.

“When he came back to the car, there was a terrorist there who ambushed him,” one of the brothers says. “When he saw my brother’s back was turned, he jumped on him and stabbed him several times. He fought him and was in a panic over the kids… the bigger daughter saw everything that happened.”

תיעוד הפיגוע בבקעה: המחבל ממתין שהצעיר יגיע לרכב – ומתנפל מאחור בדקירות@shapira_nitzan pic.twitter.com/rpqGKx2AmJ

— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) August 23, 2026

The stabber then fled. Police sent forces to the scene and the IDF dispatched special forces and Israeli Air Force aircraft to hunt for him, with roadblocks set up in the area.

“The forces are interrogating suspects and conducting intelligence-gathering work to locate the terrorist,” the army said prior to the suspect’s arrest.

Later Sunday afternoon, a Palestinian man allegedly tried to snatch a soldier’s gun near the West Bank settlement of Rimonim.

The IDF said that the soldier, of the Kfir Brigade’s Duchifat Battalion, returned fire and “neutralized” the assailant. Additional forces were dispatched to the scene, the army said.

Palestinian sources told AFP that the man, Aws Akram Maatan, from the village of Burqa east of Ramallah, suffered an injury to his foot and was taken to a Jerusalem hospital for treatment. The head of the Burqa village council, Sayel Kanaan, claimed in a statement that Maatan had been shot “without justification.”

A few days ago, a Palestinian man was shot dead while trying to stab Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Jenin. The assailant was identified as the father of a terrorist who killed three Israelis in Tel Aviv in 2022.

Meanwhile, Palestinian health authorities said Sunday that the IDF killed a Palestinian teenager in the West Bank. The Palestinian health ministry said that Israeli gunfire killed Islam Ahmad Maher Ajouri, 14, in the Askar refugee camp where he lived, outside Nablus.

Mohammed Abu Kashk, head of the Askar camp services committee, told AFP that the teenager was killed by Israeli forces during a raid on the camp: “There were no clashes or confrontations that would justify shooting a child and killing him.”

The IDF told AFP it was verifying the information.

Separately, the IDF said Sunday evening that four wanted Palestinians, including two affiliated with the Islamic State jihadist movement, were apprehended by Israeli commandos over the weekend.

The IDF said soldiers of the Duvdevan Commando Unit operated in the Ramallah area and detained four Palestinians who were wanted for “advancing terror activities.” They included two affiliated with Islamic State, and one affiliated with Hamas, according to the army. The soldiers also captured three M16 assault rifles amid the raid, the IDF added.

مقاتلو وحدة دوفدفان اعتقلوا أربعة مطلوبين في لواء بنيامين: من بينهم عناصر ينتمون إلى منظمتي حماس وداعش الإرهابيتين

⭕️خلال نهاية الأسبوع الماضي، عمل مقاتلو وحدة دوفدفان في عدد من الأنشطة الهجومية في أنحاء لواء بنيامين.

⭕️في إطار النشاط، اعتقل المقاتلون أربعة مطلوبين عملوا على… pic.twitter.com/tef338ehJJ

— Lieutenant Colonel Ella Waweya | إيلا واوية (@CaptainElla1) August 23, 2026

Violence in the West Bank has escalated sharply in recent months, mostly involving settler attacks on Palestinians, though there have also been several attacks by Palestinian assailants on Israelis.

According to a Channel 12 report over the weekend, IDF brass has issued a warning to Israel’s political leadership that the West Bank is on the brink of a violent escalation, saying that the Palestinian public may begin to take action if settler violence is allowed to continue unabated.

Diana Bletter and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.