Israeli wounded in Palestinian drive-by terror attack

An Israeli citizen was wounded in the latest of a rapidly growing string of Palestinian terror attacks in Judea and Samaria.   

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News

An Israeli civilian was lightly wounded on Sunday afternoon when Palestinian terrorists fired on the vehicle he was driving on a main route in Samaria.

The terrorists fired at the man as they were driving past him. They then fled the scene, reportedly towards the city of Shechem (Nablus), which is under control of the Palestinian Authority (PA).

The Israeli, 46, was lightly wounded in his legs and managed to drive to the entrance of the nearby community of Kedumim, where he received preliminary medical treatment by IDF and Magen David Adom (Israeli Red Cross) medics before being evacuated to Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba, near Tel Aviv. According to one report, the victim himself is a volunteer ambulance driver.

The IDF rapidly deployed forces in an attempt to capture the assailants.

The victim expressed anger at the precarious security situation that the Israeli residents of Judea and Samaria are forced to endure. “I feel like it’s a Russian roulette,” he said, according to a spokesperson from the Samaria Regional Council. “You drive on the road and all of the sudden they shoot at you. I am a citizen of the State of Israel, and I want to feel safe in my country.”  He also said he was grateful to God for saving his life.

Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council and a close friend of the victim, called on the Israeli government to change its policy. “It is inconceivable that the government has bound the IDF’s hands and does not enable it to defend the citizens of Israel, and that is exactly what happened here,” he stated, after speaking to the victim by phone. “There used to be a security barrier exactly where the terror attack occurred, which was removed ‘as not to hinder the Palestinians’ daily routine.’ The attack would have been prevented if the barrier was there.”

This incident is the latest terror attack in a rapidly growing string of attacks by Palestinian terrorists against Israeli security forces and civilians.

The previous night, an IDF soldier was lightly wounded in a car terror attack in the Hebron area in Judea.

The attack occurred two months after two separate attacks by Palestinian terrorists that claimed the lives of Malachi Rosenfeld and Danny Gonen, both 25.