'We are trained to expect a lone terrorist'
Commander of wounded Border Policeman: 'We feel the friction with the Palestinians on a daily basis'; Fatah: Heinous Israeli crime shows Netanyahu government's aggression.'
"There was no prior warning about the attack, but we are well trained to expect a lone terrorist, " a Nahal commander told Ynet on Tuesday, recounting the events at the Tapuach Junction in which one officer was moderately wounded by a terrorist.
"We called out 'terrorist!' when he started shooting and fortunately there weren't many people at the junction," the officer, N, said.
"We feel the friction with the Palestinians on a daily basis, and expect incidents like that to happen at any given moment. The only way to deal with a lone terrorist is by remaining vigilant all the time," N continued.
Earlier, Palestinian protesters blocked Highway 60, near the Tapuach Junction, and started throwing stones and setting tires on fire. They smashed the windshields of two Israeli vehicles that passed by, wounding two Israelis lightly.
Preliminary investigation into the incident in the Judea and Samaria Division found that the terrorist, 30-years-old Alaa Muhammad Awad Audah from Nablus, likely acted on his own, without any instruction of one of the terror organizations, despite the fact he is identified with the Fatah movement.
According to the investigation's findings, near 11:45 pm, when the junction was mostly light on traffic, an Israeli civilian noticed a Palestinian acting suspiciously, standing at the junction and looking at the soldiers securing the area.
The civilian told the soldiers about it, and commanders of the Border Police and the Nahal Brigade's 931 Battalion decided to look into the suspicions. Two of the soldiers walked toward him to ask him what he was doing, noticed he drew a gun, and then he fired at least two shots in their direction.
One of the soldiers, a Border Policeman, was hit in his leg, and while the Nahal soldier provided his comrade with initial medical assistance, the rest of the soldiers charged the terrorist and shot him to death.
"The heinous Israeli crime shows the whole world that the racist Netanyahu government continues its aggression against our people and our lands, and that it perpetuates the occupation, killings and construction in the settlements, instead of peace," Fatah said in a statement on Tuesday morning.
"The martyr's blood was not spilled in vain, and he will increase our determination to rid ourselves of the occupation and form an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital."
Relatives of the Audah denied the army's claim that he opened fire at the Border Police post.
They said Audah had a store selling mobile phones, and that he was at the junction awaiting a delivery of phones for his store.
According to Audah's relatives, when he got to the junction, he got out of the taxi that brought him there and went on foot to retrieve his shipment, to avoid traffic caused by the IDF's checkpoint. They claimed the IDF fired at him as soon as he got out of the vehicle.
One of Audah's relatives also said IDF forces raided Audah's home, his store and the homes of his relatives at Hawara.
