Soldier seriously hurt in West Bank ramming; attacker flees, later turns himself in
A civilian is lightly injured in crossfire near Al Fawwar; separately, IDF troops shoot a Palestinian wearing an ISIS shirt who launched flare at checkpoint
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
An Israeli soldier was seriously wounded in a car-ramming attack in the southern West Bank on Saturday evening, the military said.
According to the Israel Defense Forces, the assailant rammed his vehicle into a reservist soldier at a junction outside the Al Fawwar refugee camp near Hebron, before fleeing the scene. Later in the evening, the suspected rammer turned himself into security forces, the IDF said.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service said the 30-year-old soldier was taken to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba in serious condition.
During the incident, the IDF said troops opened fire at the car used in the attack. The army was investigating if the gunfire also mistakenly hit a civilian car driving in the area, lightly wounding one of the occupants.
MDA said that a 45-year-old man in the civilian car was lightly wounded by shrapnel. The man drove from the scene to the nearby Otniel junction where he met up with medics.
Two others in the car, a man and a young boy, were treated for acute anxiety, MDA added.
לאחר שהותר לפרסום שמדובר בחייל שנפצע בפיגוע הדריסה בהר חברון מצ"ב תיעוד מהפינוי וזירה. pic.twitter.com/eSeEQaE3Oz
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The IDF said a large number of forces were chasing after the assailant, and the army had imposed a closure on Hebron amid the pursuit. The manhunt ended when the alleged attacker turned himself in.
Earlier on Saturday, police said a Palestinian was shot and “neutralized” by a civilian security guard at the West Bank Qalandiya checkpoint after launching a flare at security forces.
There were no other injuries in the incident.
Police said that the assailant was also armed with a knife, and was wearing a shirt emblazoned with the symbol for the Islamic State terror group.
The West Bank has seen a sharp rise in violence since the Gaza war began on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
The onslaught was followed by sharp restrictions on Palestinian movement in the West Bank and wide-scale counterterrorism operations there.
Since the Hamas onslaught, Israeli troops have arrested some 5,250 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,050 affiliated with Hamas.
According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, some 800 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.
During the same period, 41 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.
