Israeli hurt in West Bank drive-by shooting attack

Man in 60s shot in leg by assailant in passing car at Kedumim junction; evacuated to hospital in light to moderate condition.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN, BEN HARTMAN
IDF soldiers at West Bank checkpoint 370 (photo credit: REUTERS/Ammar Awad)
IDF soldiers at West Bank checkpoint 370
(photo credit: REUTERS/Ammar Awad)
A 71-year-old Israeli man was shot and lightly wounded in the leg on Monday in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank suspected of being perpetrated by a terrorist.
The shooting occurred as the man stood at the hitchhiker’s station at Kedumim Junction in the northern West Bank.
Magen David Adom paramedics arrived on the scene and evacuated the injured man to a hospital, MDA spokesman Zaki Heller said.
The man had hitched a ride to the area, and had exited a car just before he was shot, Heller added.
The suspect’s vehicle pulled up to the man, and an occupant asked him a question.
“When he responded, they shot him,” Heller added.
Police and the IDF arrived on the scene, surveyed the area and set up roadblocks to try and locate the car containing the gunman.
On Monday evening, residents of the nearby settlement of Shavei Shomron – where the wounded man lives – said they held a protest at the entrance to their settlement to condemn what they said were overly strict rules of engagement that “do not allow the IDF to mitigate rock throwing and shootings on Judea and Samaria roads.”
Police arrested a few of the protesters, according to Shavei Shomron residents.
Kedumim Council head Hanane Durani said he had spoken with the IDF and asked that they increase security forces in the area, and act with a firm hand against terrorists.
The shooting comes three days after a three-year-old Israeli girl was critically wounded in the northern West Bank, when Palestinian rock-throwers attacked the car she was travelling in, causing it to collide with a truck.
The girl’s mother and siblings were moderately wounded in the attack. Army special forces arrested ten Palestinian suspects in the hours after the incident.
Tovah Lazaroff contributed to this report.