Palestinian man shot dead after ramming tractor through gate of army base
Brother of assailant reportedly committed similar attack in Jerusalem in 2009; one soldier lightly hurt in Thursday’s incident
Gavriel Fiske is a reporter at The Times of Israel
A Palestinian man was shot and killed Thursday evening after he forced his way into an army base north of Jerusalem, using a tractor to ram the gate, in what the IDF described as a suspected terror attack.
Palestinian officials said the suspect was identified as Younis al-Radeideh. His family reportedly recently received a demolition order for their East Jerusalem home, according to Walla News.
According to reports, in 2009, his brother Marei al-Radeideh, a resident of Bet Hanina, was shot dead in a similar incident in Jerusalem when he drove a tractor into two vehicles, including a police car and an empty bus. He was shot by officers at the scene.
Younis Radeideh is believed by israeli officials to have acted on his own, Israel Radio reported.
Thursday’s incident occurred at the IDF’s Rama Base, just north of Jerusalem next to Al-Ram, a Palestinian neighborhood.
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The IDF upped its readiness in wake of the attack, which came without any prior warning, according to Israel Radio.
Radeideh reportedly drove up to the base in the early evening and asked to enter. While the soldier at the gate clarified whether he had permission to do so, he rammed the tractor into the gate, making his way into the base and hitting an army vehicle in his way.
Two soldiers fired at Radeideh, wounding him. An IDF medical team at the scene pronounced him dead shortly after.
“IDF soldiers felt an immediate threat and opened fire,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Office told the Times of Israel.
One soldier was lightly hurt in the commotion.
In December 2012, two Palestinians used the cover of a storm to gain access to the same army base, then pepper-sprayed a soldier and escaped with his weapon.
There has been an uptick in the number of suspected terror attacks against Israelis in the West Bank over the last several weeks. Over the past two months, several sporadic attacks have prompted worries of a “new kind of terrorism.”
Earlier this month, Seraiah Ofer, a retired IDF colonel in his 50s, was killed outside his home in Brosh HaBika in the Jordan Valley after he was beaten to death by Palestinian assailants.
Last week, two Palestinian men were arrested in connection to an October 5 terror attack in the West Bank settlement of Psagot. In that attack, a gunman infiltrated the settlement and shot a 9-year-old girl. She was lightly wounded.
In September, two IDF soldiers were killed in separate incidents. One soldier, Tomer Hazan, was murdered by a Palestinian coworker who lured him to a village near Qalqilya. A second soldier, Gal Gabriel Kobi, was killed by what the army said was a sniper shot outside the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron.
In 2008, Jerusalem suffered a spate of terror attacks involving tractors. In July that year, an East Jerusalem resident killed three people, and wounded 30, after he rammed his construction vehicle into buses and cars and trampled pedestrians on Rashi, Jaffa and Sarei Israel streets in the city. He was shot dead at the scene. Three weeks later, another Palestinian man used his tractor to plow into vehicles on King David street in Jerusalem, making his way to Keren Hayesod street, where he was shot and killed by a Border Police officer. Twenty four people were injured in that incident.
In September that same year, another East Jerusalem resident rammed a private vehicle into IDF soldiers and civilians standing near the Old City. Several people were wounded and the driver was shot and killed.
