On Friday, high temperatures caused landmines planted around the eastern edge of the town of Karnei Shomron to explode.

The explosion set off wildfires that traveled up a nearby mountain and destroyed 4 homes in the Ramat Gilad neighborhood. The entire neighborhood was evacuated while firefighters tried to stop the blaze.

Apparently, the Jordanians had planted land mines in the area some 50 or 60 years ago when they illegally occupied the region. Until the landmines exploded on Friday, no one knew they were there.

H/T The Muqata

A 50-year-old man on a bicycle trek, organized by the anti-Israeli organization, MAP-UK, died as his group passed by the settlement of Karnei Shomron, on Monday.

The man had passed out a short time earlier, but reportedly, other members of his bicycling group told him he was OK to continue the bike trek.

After the man collapsed a second time on Highway 55 and they called for an ambulance, emergency medical teams from nearby Karnei Shomron and the IDF came out to save him.

Despite working on him for around an hour, the emergency crews were unable to save his life.

Ballot slips for the March 17 elections are being printed in Karnei Shomron, a Jewish community that is located in Samaria and part of the “occupied territories: whose produce is boycotted by leftists.

The Sirugim website reported Sunday that “Yisrapot” won the tender to print the slips of paper with the acronyms of the 16 parties running in the elections.

Two weeks ago, Meretz leader Zahav Gal-On refused to accept a bottle of wine given to her because it was produced in Judea and Samaria.

If the “Boycott Yesha” movement is true to its ideology, its cheerleaders won’t vote March 17.

On Saturday night, a car tried to block another car driven by a Jewish woman on Road 55 between Nebi Elias and Tachsin, which is in the area of Maaleh Shomron, according to a Tazpit report.

A man got out of the blocking car’s passenger side and tried to get into the woman’s vehicle – but she locked the doors in time.

The man then smashed the windows of the woman’s car.

The Jewish woman managed to drive off and reached safety at the town of Karnei Shomron.

7:30 pm From the Ginot Shomron CTU Commander:

Official Announcement regarding the security incident in Ginot Shomron today:

There was a reported sighting of a suspect in Ginot this afternoon. The suspect was most probably a teenager with a paintball rifle. There were no injuries, no arrests and there are no suspects. The entire incident has been closed by the IDF, Police and Security Dept. of the Moetza.

Thank you for your cooperation.

6:14pm All Clear.

After detailed searches by security force, no masked man was found in the town.

Security forces have given the all-clear.

5:25pm There is currently a serious security incident happening inside the town of Ginot Shomron (Karnei Shomron).

Residents have been told to go inside and lock their doors.

Details to follow, when permitted.

Reuven Singer can often be seen wearing two very different uniforms that seem worlds apart.

The 33-year-old father, who lives in Karnei Shomron in northwestern Samaria, dons his bullet-proof vest and carries his M16 to protect his community in an event of a terrorist attack, as a volunteer in his neighborhood security watch team. But Singer’s other uniform – a far jollier one – consists of a red rubber nose, clown shoes, and a colorful tie and crazy hat that he wears during clown therapy sessions at a Tel Aviv hospital.

The religious settler travels once a week to the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital), where he works to uplift patients, through jokes, laughter and improvisation.

“A hospital is not a fun place,” Singer tells Tazpit News Agency. You want the patients to feel more comfortable.

“I’ve worked with children and parents who are hysterical before blood infusions, check-ups, or surgery. My job is to relax the parents and help the child overcome the pain and tension. That helps the staff and doctors too. Once you give the parent and child a chance to smile and breathe more easily, it helps everyone,” Singer told Tazpit News Agency in an exclusive interview.

Singer, who has been volunteering as clown therapist for three years, has worked with many different sectors of Israeli society including Palestinian children from Gaza who have been brought into Israel for treatment. “You don’t look at the person before you – I don’t see an Arab, Eritrean, Russian, or whatever ethnicity person is – all I see is the pain.”

“To me, it doesn’t matter if it’s an Arab child or a Jewish child – I want to help bring that person out of the pain and give him or her some positive energy,” Singer explains.

“Sometimes, I throw in a word in Russian or Arabic during a joke and the smile in return is worth everything.”

Singer has found himself in situations where rocks have been thrown at his vehicle on his way home to Samaria from the hospital.

“Palestinians throwing rocks at my vehicle won’t stop me,” he says. “I believe that when Arab patients see me, it will give them a chance to see that a religious settler is not a monster and maybe in turn it will make them stop throwing rocks.”

Singer’s day job is aerial photography but he says that it’s his volunteer work that is most meaningful. “I volunteer in two very different professions, but both save lives in different ways.”

He describes a unique Purim two years ago in Karnei Shomron when he dressed up in the clown costume he usually donned for clown therapy session. Suddenly in the middle of the Purim seuda (festive holiday meal) the community was alerted to a potential terror threat.

“Here I was, dressed as a clown with a red rubber nose, and I had to go out with my M16 for a security check,” he says. “That was truly a bizarre experience.”

Today an estimated number of 320 clown therapists operate across Israel. Following a chance meeting with a clown therapist who treated Singer’s daughter when she was hospitalized five years ago, Singer decided to take a six-month clown therapy course where he learned how to be a medical clown himself.

“I go to the hospital every week and act as a clown to make someone feel better. I want to change a child’s reality for good and this is how I do it.”

A woman from Karnei Shomron, located in central Samaria, suffered injuries in her Monmouth and face Wednesday morning from glass that was shattered in another rock-throwing attack by a Palestinian Authority Arab.

The woman was driving her car at the entrance to the community when the rock was thrown at the village of Lakif, located on the other side of the highway from the entrance to Karnei Shomron.

A security officer from the adjacent Ginot Shomron community told The Jewish Press that rock-throwing is a daily event on Highway 55, the road used by Arabs and Jews to travel back and forth  between Samaria and Tel Aviv area.