Three soldiers injured in West Bank stabbing, ramming attacks; assailants killed
Suspect assaults troops with knife during security check, is shot dead; separately, forces kill driver of car that plowed into soldiers near Hebron; wounded troops in good condition
Two soldiers were lightly injured Tuesday morning in a stabbing attack near the northern West Bank settlement of Ateret, the Israel Defense Forces said. The assailant was shot dead.
The attack came hours after a soldier was lightly hurt in a car-ramming near the city of Hebron. The attacker was killed during a subsequent attempt to arrest him.
Tuesday’s stabbing occurred after troops were dispatched to question a suspicious individual seen near Ateret, north of Ramallah. Soldiers stopped the man and began inspecting him when he pulled out a knife and stabbed two of them before being shot and killed, the army said.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service said medics treated two lightly hurt soldiers at the scene before taking them for further treatment.
The Palestinian Authority health ministry identified the assailant as Mohammed Asmar, 18, from the nearby village of Beit Rima.
Palestinian media reported that the IDF seized Asmar’s body in accordance with the military’s standard practice in such cases.
The military said in a subsequent statement that it imposed a siege on nearby Palestinian towns and put up roadblocks.
The attack was captured on CCTV.
Hours earlier, on Monday night near Hebron, an assailant accelerated his vehicle into troops stationed at the Yehuda Junction, injuring one servicewoman. The car fled the scene as troops fired at it. The injured soldier was taken to a hospital for treatment.
The army then set up roadblocks in the area and conducted extensive searches. Eventually the attacker was spotted in Hebron in the car used in the attack. During the arrest attempt, the suspect “tried to escape while endangering the fighters, the forces reacted with gunfire, and he was eliminated,” according to the army.
The Palestinian Authority health ministry identified him as 17-year-old Mohannad al-Zughayar.
Ma’an reported that during the pursuit, the IDF blocked the entrances to Hebron with metal gates and searched several homes belonging to al-Zughayar’s family in the city.
Violence in the West Bank has surged since Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023. According to the Palestinian Authority, over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers since then. The IDF has said that most of those killed were gunmen, rioters clashing with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.
During the same period, 63 civilians and Israeli security personnel have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in clashes during raids in Palestinian cities in the West Bank.
Attacks by settler extremists have also risen sharply. The IDF has recorded more than 752 incidents of settler violence in the West Bank since the start of the year, surpassing the 675 incidents recorded in 2024.