Palestinian Authority Arab terrorists are using new hi-tech methods in their efforts to murder Israelis on the roads in Judea and Samaria.
A Jewish driver reported Sunday he nearly became the first victim of the new technique on Highway 60 in Samaria. The incident occurred near the Jewish town of Ofra.
According to the driver, an Arab vehicle pulled up alongside his own car. The Arab driver then pointed a laser at his eyes, trying to blind him and force him to lose control of his vehicle.
“He tried to divert my view from the road so that I would crash,” the driver told the Arutz Sheva website. “By a miracle I managed to escape… it’s clear that he tried to kill me.”
The number of road terror incidents has risen over the past year, since the start of the dead-on-arrival ‘framework talks’ forced on Israel and the Palestinian Authority by the United States.
Despite the risk, road blocks that prevented terrorists from scooting into Arab villages after an attack were removed from major hot spots along Highway 60 in Judea and Samaria.
Since the start of the talks, a sleek new traffic circle and intersection – funded by USAID — has replaced what once was a blocked entrance to the city of Hevron along Highway 60 in Judea, and the village of Shuyukh on the opposite side.
Today, instead, the entrance to the village is now a brand new road with a new sign bearing the name ‘Al-Shuyukh.’ On the other side of the road, a large, gated entrance to Hevron is protected with electronic fencing and security in place. It’s not clear who controls what there.
A massive traffic circle plus the free passage of pedestrians across the road slows the traffic on Highway 60 – a major artery – to a trickle, often causing traffic jams during the busiest hours.
Such traffic jams can be deadly for Jewish drivers on such a road; vehicles with Israeli license plates become sitting ducks for hostile Arabs and PA terrorists on the hunt for victims.
Even slowdowns can be lethal; in September 2011, Kiryat Arba resident Asher Palmer paid the price with his life and that of his one year old toddler Yonatan. Palmer was killed in a drive-by road terror attack after Arab terrorists hurled a huge rock at his windshield while driving by his car on Highway 60. The rock hit Palmer square in the face; he lost control of his car, which then crashed, killing both him and his baby son.
Only through the persistence of medics who had been on the scene, activists and media coverage did the circumstances of Palmer’s murder become clear. Initially police and other officials believed Palmer’s car had crashed by accident.