Molotov cocktail hurled at Israeli bus in West Bank

A Molotov cocktail was hurled Wednesday at an Israeli bus near the central West Bank Jewish settlement of Halamish, northwest of the Palestinian city of Ramallah, causing slight damage to the vehicle but resulting in no injuries.

IDF soldiers were searching the area for the perpetrators.

Officials have noted a sharp uptick in violent attacks against Israelis in the West Bank over the past several weeks, with at least one assault carried out by a Palestinian said to be affiliated with the Hamas terrorist group.

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On Friday, a Palestinian teenager was shot and injured by IDF troops near the Qalandiya checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ramallah, after the youth threw stones at a military vehicle. He later died of his wounds.

Last Tuesday, a 25-year-old Israeli, Malachy Moshe Rosenfeld, died of wounds sustained a day earlier in a shooting attack in the West Bank.

A week earlier, a female soldier sustained moderate injuries when she was stabbed by a Palestinian at a checkpoint between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

On June 26, a Palestinian assailant was shot and killed by IDF soldiers after he opened fire on Israeli troops at a checkpoint in the West Bank. No soldiers were injured in the attack. On June 22, a Palestinian man stabbed and seriously injured a female Israeli Border Police officer outside Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate. The assailant, said to be a Hamas member or sympathizer, was shot and captured. And on June 19, a 25-year-old Israeli man, Danny Gonen, died after being shot near the settlement of Dolev, northwest of Jerusalem.

AP contributed to this report.