Three Israelis wounded in Samaria terror shooting

‘We are strong, and we will still drive here. It will be all right, with God’s help,’ one of the victims said.

By Charles Bybelezer and Joshua Marks, JNS

Three Israelis were lightly wounded on Tuesday morning in a terrorist attack near Shavei Shomron in Samaria, some six miles northwest of Nablus.

The victims, males aged 15, 16, and 32, were wounded by shards of glass after their vehicle came under fire. They were treated on the scene before being evacuated to Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba.

Israel Defense Forces soldiers launched a manhunt for the assailants.

One of the survivors of the attack, Uri Hirschfeld, discussed the details of the incident with the head of the Samaria Council, Yossi Dagan, who lives nearby, according to Israel National News.

“We left Avnei Hefetz and were heading to Har Bracha. We got to the intersection. I heard a loud boom, and found … the exit holes of a bullet. I looked to my friend on my right and saw that he had been hit and had blood on his hands,” he said.

“We continued driving straight from here, and we saw an IDF jeep. We stopped it and arrived here,” he added.

“We are strong, and we will still drive here. It will be all right, with God’s help,” he said.

Dagan said that the shooting took place close to where Elhanan Klein was murdered in a terror attack in November.

The attack is a “clear reminder that there is a war in Judea and Samaria, just like there is a war in Gaza and on the northern border,” said Dagan.

“The Palestinian Authority is the same as Hamas. Some are terrorists in suits, and some are terrorists with a green [Hamas] bandana on their foreheads. I demand from the government and the high command to change the approach already,” he continued.

Elsewhere in Judea and Samaria overnight Monday, Border Police officers shot and killed a terrorist after he stabbed and lightly wounded one of them.

The terrorist was identified as a 19-year-old resident of the Gaza Strip. The incident occurred during a counterterror operation in the city of al-Bira, north of Jerusalem, near Ramallah.

Commander of the Military Police, Superintendent Yitzhak Brik, visited the officer in the hospital and praised his response:

“With a quick, determined and sharp reaction, you recognized the threat, made contact and eliminated the terrorist—you acted as a Military Police fighter is expected to act in this type of event. I wish you a speedy recovery,” said Brik, as quoted by Israel National News.

Also overnight Monday, three Israelis were wounded when IDF troops operating near Beit El fired on their vehicle, mistaking them for terrorists.

An 18-year-old man was hit in the shoulder and evacuated to the hospital in light to moderate condition.

A 17-year-old and a 24-year-old were lightly injured by glass shards.

“After a preliminary probe, it is clear that the shooting was carried out accidentally at an Israeli vehicle. The incident is being investigated,” according to the military.

On Sunday, Israeli security forces thwarted a stabbing at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the Judea city of Hebron.

The suspect, a 37-year-old Palestinian woman who had come to the site with her two children, aroused security guards’ suspicion when she refused to open her bag during a routine inspection.

“During the search of the bag, a police officer noticed a knife hidden inside a T-shirt,” according to a police statement. “The suspect (37) was arrested along with one of her sons; the other son was detained.”

Following her arrest, the suspect confessed that she is married to a Hamas terrorist serving time in an Israeli prison and that she had intended to stab officers protecting Judaism’s second-holiest site.

Also Sunday, four IDF soldiers were wounded, including two seriously, in a vehicular assault near the central Israeli city of Lod.

The assailant, 26-year-old Muhammad Shahab from the Kafr Aqab neighborhood of northeastern Jerusalem, was neutralized by Border Police officers.