An IDF officer was seriously wounded in a Palestinian terror attack Tuesday night when several pipe bombs exploded on the route he was patrolling just north of Jerusalem.
By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News
According to the initial investigation, the officer was seriously wounded when four of the nine pipe-bombs placed at the entrance to the village of Hizmeh by Palestinian terrorists exploded.
The soldier sustained wounds to his face, head and upper body. He was rushed to Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in the capital and was operated on overnight.
A second IDF soldier sustained light shrapnel wounds to his leg. A female citizen who was present at the scene at the time of the explosion was treated for shock.
Sappers combed the scene and dismantled the five remaining pipe bombs, some of them connected to gas balloons.
The IDF is estimating that a large-scale attack was prevented and has launched an investigation. Large forces are searching for the terrorists who placed the bombs.
Route 437, a major highway on which the attack occurred, was shut down for several hours.
This was the second Palestinian terror attack on Tuesday. On Tuesday morning, two elderly women were stabbed and moderately wounded by Palestinian terrorists as they were taking a morning walk.
These incidents were the latest in a long series of Palestinian terror attacks, which have plagued Israelis over the course of over seven months, claiming the lives of 33 victims and wounding over 450.