Israeli woman says Palestinians blocked her car, smashed window with hammer
Victim lightly injured; police characterize incident as an attempted carjacking
An Israeli woman said Wednesday that a group of Palestinians blocked her car close to the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Levonah and then smashed her window with a hammer, leaving her lightly injured.
The victim said she remained in her vehicle and managed to drive away.
Police opened an investigation into the incident, which they said was an attempted carjacking.
The incident came a few months after Supreme Court justice David Mintz said he escaped a violent assault by three men armed with hammers as he drove on a West Bank highway near his home in the settlement of Dolev.
Wednesday’s incident came amid heightened tensions in the West Bank following an uptick in violence.
Two Israeli soldiers were killed and another was critically injured, along with a civilian in a shooting attack at Givat Assaf on December 13. On Tuesday Israeli security forces arrested Asem Barghouti, who is suspected of carrying out the attack, ending a weeks-long manhunt.
And on December 9, several Israelis were injured in an attack at the Ofra Junction, including a seven-months pregnant woman, whose baby — delivered in emergency surgery by doctors hours after the attack — died four days later. Barghouti also took part in that attack, along with his brother, Salih, who was killed as as he attacked Israeli security forces in an attempt to evade arrest, the army said.
