An Arab terrorist early Thursday morning attacked an IDF soldier with a hammer near Baytin village in Binyamin, near Ramallah.
The soldier, a driver of the Binyamin division, was slightly wounded in the head and responded by shooting the terrorist twice. The attacker was pronounced dead on the spot. A knife was found on his body.
In a conversation with his friend, the soldier recalled: “The terrorist smacked my temple with a hammer, I swear to you, it’s a miracle I’m alive. He had a knife on him. Had I passed out from the hammer I would have been stabbed and no one would know where I was.”
Meanwhile, Israeli security forces arrested four suspects overnight Thursday suspected of aiding the terrorists who attacked a bus in the Jordan Valley. Two of the detainees are relatives of the fugitive terrorist Maher al-Said who lives in Jenin and two from the village of Bruqin. The force also arrested al-Said’s wife and confiscated all the phones in the house before beating a hasty retreat.
There was an exchange of fire between armed men and IDF soldiers during the arrest operation, and explosive charges were thrown at the soldiers. A fighter from the Nahal patrol unit was slightly wounded by shrapnel and was taken to the Emek Hospital in Afula.
August was the most violent month since last May. Shin Bet data show that compared to July, when 113 terrorist attacks took place in Judea and Samaria, including 15 shooting incidents, in August, there were 172 attacks, including 23 shootings. The number of Molotov cocktails thrown by Arabs increased from 75 in July to 135 in August.
