Palestinian Van Crashes Into Soldiers on West Bank

By JTA November 5, 2014

A van with Palestinian Authority license plates drove into a group of soldiers standing at a West Bank traffic junction in what is believed to be a terror attack.

One soldier was seriously injured and two others were moderately hurt in the Wednesday night attack in Gush Etzion, according to Israel Police.

It was the second attack that day, apparently by Palestinians, using a vehicle as a weapon and the third in two weeks. The earlier attack on Wednesday, in Jerusalem, killed a Border Police officer and injured more than a dozen people.

In the West Bank attack, the driver escaped in the vehicle heading south, according to reports. Israeli forces reportedly fired at the driver and set up roadblocks in order to apprehend him.

The attack came as police began placing concrete blocks in front of Jerusalem light rail stops to prevent further attacks on passengers and pedestrians.

In Jerusalem, a Hamas activist from eastern Jerusalem drove a car into a light rail station and onto the sidewalk.

On Oct. 22, a Palestinian driver plowed into a crowd of people at a light rail station on Ammunition Hill in northern Jerusalem, killing a 3-month-old girl who was a dual American-Israeli citizen and a tourist from Ecuador

The West Bank attack came shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a security meeting to discuss the earlier attack and unrest in Jerusalem.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO