A woman was lightly wounded Monday evening in a car-ramming attack near the Kiryat Arba area in the southern West Bank, authorities said, as security forces launched a manhunt for the driver, who may have been hit by IDF gunfire.
The military said its troops “rushed to the Yehuda Junction area in the Judea Brigade sector following a report of a ramming attack, and the force returned fire. IDF troops are now conducting extensive searches for the attacker.”
The incident came two days after a separate attack attempt on Highway 5, near the Palestinian village of Mas-ha, where a metal rod was hurled at a vehicle belonging to a resident of Ramat Gan. The bar smashed into the windshield, and the driver was treated for shock and later released.
Merav Ben Avraham, 23, who was in the passenger seat, told ynet the impact was terrifying. “Three minutes before the Shomron Crossing checkpoint we heard a boom,” she said. “We saw the bar in the car, panicked and thought it was an attack.”
IDF troops began searching for the assailant, and soldiers from the Ephraim Regional Brigade raided Mas-ha, removed security cameras and collected evidence. Police forensic teams took the metal bar for examination.
The ramming and earlier attack attempt unfolded days after part of Israel’s separation barrier collapsed between the community of Eliav in the Lakhish region and the West Bank amid heavy rains. The concrete wall is meant to prevent infiltration by terrorists and by Palestinians entering Israel without permits.
A police official blamed the collapse on what he called IDF negligence, saying drainage systems beneath the wall had not been opened or maintained properly, causing water to build up and topple the section.
A Defense Ministry official rejected that assessment, saying drainage openings are operated “according to the situational assessment” and with security considerations — particularly preventing the movement of terrorists — foremost in mind.