Palestinian vehicle hits police car in West Bank; IDF says a deliberate attack
Driver arrested after incident at Eli gas station; none hurt
A Palestinian vehicle collided with a police car in the West Bank Saturday in what the Israeli army said was a deliberate attack.
The collision happened at the Eli gas station, the scene of a number of previous terror attacks.
“A Palestinian vehicle accelerated toward a police car and collided with it. There were no casualties,” the Israel Defense Forces said.
The assailant “was caught by IDF troops” and arrested, it added.
The alleged attack follows several others in the West Bank in recent days.
On Monday an abandoned car laden with explosives was neutralized by security forces at the entrance to the Ateret settlement in the central West Bank.
That followed a twin car-bomb attack last week in the southern West Bank, in which several people were injured. Hamas claimed responsibility, on the heels of a call from a top official in the terror group to resume suicide bombings.
Two days after the car bombings, three Israeli police officers were killed in a shooting attack near the Palestinian city of Tarqumiyah in the southern West Bank.
The incidents came amid major ongoing counterterrorism operations by the Israel Defense Forces in several West Bank cities. The IDF operations were launched in the wake of an attempted suicide bombing in Tel Aviv in August, also claimed by Hamas.
Tensions in the West Bank have been high since the October 7 Hamas massacre, which saw terrorists from Gaza infiltrate Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251, starting the ongoing war.
Since October 7, troops have arrested some 5,000 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,000 affiliated with Hamas.
According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 670 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.
During the same period, 29 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another six members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.
Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.
