Egged bus drivers strike after Beit El shooting, IDF searches for attacker

This is one more in a series of terror attacks in the West Bank in the last weeks.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Updated: JANUARY 7, 2019 02:42
Shooting at a bus near Beit El, January 6, 2019 (photo credit: NATHANAEL KAUFMAN/TPS)
Shooting at a bus near Beit El, January 6, 2019
(photo credit: NATHANAEL KAUFMAN/TPS)
The strike that was announced on Sunday by Egged bus drivers following a shooting attack Saturday near the West Bank town of Beit El will be postponed, as the company committed to provide bulletproof buses in the area of Beit El.
"Strikes are used to send a message," Raed Mashal, Chairman of the Workers' Committee said. "We will not allow the current situation to continue without proper protection to the buses. If we see no long-term answer to our demands, we will strike."
Four bullets were fired at the bus and soldiers searched the area for the suspects. The driver was lightly injured by shards of glass.
"We warn that many drivers are considering stopping driving buses following recent events. Our blood is not free," Israel Ganon, the chairman of the bus drivers’ organization in Israel, said before the strike was announced.
"For months we have been warning about attempts to harm bus drivers in Judea and Samaria. We are strengthening the security forces in their attempts to find the terrorists."
As part of the search for the individual who attacked the bus, IDF forces raided the Palestinian city of al-Bireh Saturday night and confiscated video footage in the al-Balu'a and a-Sana'a neighborhoods, according to Palestinian reports.
The IDF confirmed reports of clashes during an overnight raid in the city.
A Palestinian man was seriously injured by a rubber bullet in the head, causing a skull fracture and internal bleeding, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The injury has not been confirmed by Israeli sources.
Egged is among the largest bus company in Israel. It operates lines in Jerusalem, Netanya, Judaea, Samaria and Mevaseret Zion.
This is one more in a series of terror attacks in the West Bank in the last weeks.
Last week, a Palestinian driver coming from Nablus was shot after attempting a ramming attack near, south of Beit El in the West Bank.
In the same area, two IDF soldiers were killed by a Palestinian gunman, who got out of his car and shot them as they stood at a bus stop at the T-Junction outside the Givat Assat outpost in December.