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No injuries after security agents open fire on Israeli car by mistake

Israeli security agents open fire on a speeding car, only to discover it was Israelis fleeing after being hit by a Palestinian vehicle.

By World Israel News Staff

A force of Shin Bet security agents accidentally opened fire on an Israeli vehicle near a checkpoint in the Bir Zeit area of Samaria near Ramallah on Tuesday after they thought the car was speeding towards them.

“During the activity of the security forces in the area of ​​Bir Zeit, a vehicle drove quickly towards the force that was at the scene after hitting another vehicle,” the Shin Bet, the equivalent of the FBI, said in a statement after the incident. “The force, which believed it was a car attack, fired at the vehicle. No one was injured in the shooting.”

A preliminary investigation of the incident indicated that an Israeli vehicle was hit in a minor car accident with a Palestinian vehicle, near a temporary checkpoint set up by the security team near Ramallah, Ynet reported. The agents noticed the Israeli vehicle accelerating towards them and did not know that the cause was the traffic accident.

The agents thought the vehicle, which was driven by a Jewish resident from the nearby community of Ateret, was trying to run them over and opened fire at the windshield. The driver was taken to Sheba Hospital with a suspected rib fracture from the car crash, but was not hit by the bullets.

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The shooting took place at the same time as the funeral of Esther Horgan, who was murdered on Sunday while walking in a wooded area near her home in Samaria. Authorities suspect she was killed in a terrorist attack, and a restraining order was imposed on the details of the investigation.

On Monday, 16-year-old Ahuvia Sandak from Bat Ayin was killed when the car he was in flipped during a police chase near Ramallah. Sandak was with a group of Jewish hilltop youth suspected of throwing stones at Palestinian cars. The youths fled when police arrived on the scene, and the driver lost control of the car that ran off the road.