Monday, November 26, 2018

26-Nov-18: An Arab-on-Israeli vehicle ramming attack this afternoon - the driver is dead, the injured are recovering

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A little after noon today, three IDF servicemen doing construction work along the side of the road were struck by a car driven by a Palestinian Arab male.

This happened on Route 60 as that highway passes Karmei Tzur, an Israeli community of about 1,100, located 22 km south of Jerusalem, just south of Gush Etzion Junction.

The IDF says one has moderate injuries to all four limbs while the others are injured lightly - scrapes and bruises. All were treated at the scene by ambulance crews and then taken to hospitals in Jerusalem for treatment.

This is believed by the military to have been a deliberate vehicle-ramming attack. A fourth soldier, an Army reservist, fired at the driver and killed him. In the Arab media, the suspected attacker is named as Ramzi Abu Yabes, 32, a resident of Dheisheh refugee camp.

UPDATE November 27, 2018: In its customary way, the European-funded-and-backed Palestinian Arab news channel, Ma'an News Agency, casts doubt ["Palestinian shot, killed for alleged attack near Gush Etzion"] on the version of events reported from Israel. That's in its English-language edition. But in its Arabic version, the driver of the attack vehicle is called 'martyr'. And overnight, according to a reliable source [here], Hamas, which is less interested in vagueness and more in  open incitement, released a statement
"calling Ramzi Abu Yabes a hero for using his vehicle to strike three #IDF soldiers along a central West Bank highway today. His home is currently adorned with Hamas flags and visitors."
Another Arabic source [here], quoting a spokesperson for the ambulance that attended the scene, says Abu Yabes
"was on a mission to treat a burn patient in Beit Ummar [and] had undergone a cardiac catheterization for almost two months which made him unable to control the driving of the car, which deviated towards Israeli soldiers... and it is not true that he carried out the operation in favor of any Palestinian faction."

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